PINK COCKATOO. 
time among the mallees which cover the escarpment, coming to the waterhole in 
the morning and evening to drink. The same waterhole was much frequented 
by White-eyed Crows and their black plumage contrasted with the lovely pink 
and white plumage of the Leadb eater’s making the latter appear all the more 
beautiful, though even without the contrast they are to my mind among the 
most beautiful of birds. As far as I know, only the Flamingo exhibits such 
a beautiful rosy flush contrasting with snowy white. The birds seem quire 
aware of their beauty and spend much of their time showing off to one 
another. By opening their wings partially they exhibit the pink colour 
underneath, at the same time spreading the magnificent crest with its bands 
of yellow and scarlet until it forms a perfect semicircle. If I had not seen it 
done repeatedly, I could not have believed that the crest could be spread so 
far forward, the front feathers seeming almost to touch the beak.” 
Mr. Tom Carter stated : “ Personally I only know of one locality in West 
Australia where this species used to occur and that was in 1887. It was on 
some cliffs on the Wooramel River, Mid- west.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers reported from the Mary River, North-west Australia, 
10th July, 1909 : “ One pair seen ; am told by old residents that these birds 
have only come to the Mary in the last few years, but that they are fairly 
numerous on Sturt’s Creek, about 120 miles approximately from here.” 
Captain S. A. White, reporting upon the birds met with on his trip to the 
Gawler Ranges {Emu, Vol. XIII., p. 23, 1913), wrote : “ We did not observe 
these birds {Gacatua leadbeateri ) till we reached the south-western end of the 
ranges, although we had seen their crests in the head decorations of the natives. 
They were feeding in large flocks on bare ground, and when alarmed they 
took flight with great screeching, but alighted again soon. They often alighted 
on a dead tree, which they covered in such a mass as to give the appearance 
of cotton wool. Strangely, many of these birds were in the worst possible 
stage of moulting, yet some birds in fine plumage had paired prior to nesting. 
One nest was taken in a white gum growing on a flat amidst the mallee belt. 
The hollow was 40 to 50 feet from the ground, and contained three fresh eggs.” 
Chandler noted {Emu, Vol. XIII., p. 36, 1913) : “ A bird well distributed 
(on the Kow Plains, Victoria) and a number of nesting hollows were found. 
A curious coincidence which we noted about the nesting of this bird was that 
a nest of Barnardius barnardi was invariably found in the same or an adjacent 
tree. This bird has keen ears, and will slip off the nest when one is 50 yards 
or more away.” 
From the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol III., I quote the following 
accounts : Mr. K. H. Bennett’s observations chiefly relate to its nesting habits, 
but he wrote : “ The chief haunt of Cacatua leadbeateri is the thickly timbered 
VOL. VI. 
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