THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
breeding time ; sometimes in the ranges and at others out upon the plains 
they pair off and scatter along the creeks, taking possession of the hollows 
of the red gums growing along either bank, nesting during September and 
October, sometimes November.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby has written me : “I have seen this species in pairs 
in the ranges just beyond Stevens Creek, near Broken Hill, and Mr. Love 
sent me skins from Leigh’s Creek, saying that at certain seasons they visit 
that township in great numbers.” 
Mr. Tom Carter’s observations here follow : “ This is the prevailing 
Cockatoo of the North-west, and may be seen in flocks of countless thousands 
before and after the breeding season, about the Gascoyne River right down 
to the coast and other localities. When at Carnarvon (at the mouth of the 
Gascoyne River) in August, 1911, enormous flocks were seen close to the 
Port township feeding on the seeds of that creeping noxious plant known as 
Double-gees. The Cockatoos crack up and break off the hard spiny outer 
husks and eat the seeds, for which reason the Gascoyne Road Boards had passed 
a by-law to protect the birds, but as I pointed out to the Chairman, this might 
mean the further spreading of the harmful plant (the seeds seriously lame 
sheep) because whole seeds might probably be voided by the Cockatoos in 
far distant localities, in a state favourable for germination. Seeds of grasses 
and trees, and also certain bulbs and roots, are the chief food of the species. 
The bulbs of a small leek-like annual (much eaten by the aborigines and 
abundant after rains) are much eaten by the Cockatoos and easily obtained, 
as they grow a short distance below the surface of the ground. These 
Cockatoos bred freely in the cavities of the cliffs in the ranges about Point 
Cloates and the North-west Cape, and also in the trunks of the large Red 
Mangrove trees on the edges of the Ex mouth Gulf and coasts near the Ash- 
burton River. I found several clutches of eggs in the broken tops of large 
white ant-hills that were in thousands on the large area of open treeless and 
shrubless spinifex ( triodia ) country that extended far to the east of Point 
Cloates. These Cockatoos increased largely in numbers since the settlement 
and civilization of the North-west, because when the aborigines came to work 
on the stations they did not trouble to get the young birds to eat as they had 
formerly done, young cockatoos being esteemed as very dainty food. The 
large Lace Lizards or Monitors (commonly known as Iguanas) eat a good many 
eggs and also young birds as I have often observed. About Point Cloates 
and Maud’s Landing (thirty-five miles south), where there is no timber growing 
within thirty miles, large flocks of these Cockatoos used to come down to the 
coast sandhills almost every year in May. For what reasons these visitations 
were made could not be ascertained. The birds only did it for a few days 
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