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SLENBjEB-BILLED cockatoo. 
of the Parrot family, whether Cockatoos, Lories, Parrakeets, or Parrots 
proper, in one genus, presents so many advantages to the student of 
ornithology, that it would he impertinent to enlarge upon it here: 
where all are designated by the one generic appellation of Psittacus, 
the veriest tyro in natural history will see at a glance to what family 
a PlyctolopJms, Brotogenis, Licmetis, Trirhoglossus, Macroeercus, Calyp- 
torynchus, Tanygnathus, Triclaria, and Palceornis belongs; whereas 
under the old system the creatures so designated might, for all he 
could tell, be a kind of ostrich, humming-bird, or baboon even, instead 
of a variety of Parrot. 
The general colour of this bird is white, but the forehead and face 
are reddish, a tinge of the same colour is apparent on the vent, and 
a patch of blue bare skin surrounds the eye; the beak is white, and 
the upper mandible extraordinarily prolonged, whence some of the 
creature’s names, both English and scientific. 
When in their wild state the Slender-billed Cockatoos, in addition to 
preying voraciously on tho ripening crops of the farmer, feed on various 
kinds of bulbous plants, the roots of which they dig with much expert- 
ness out of the hard sun-baked soil of Australia, and do not disdain 
a good fat wood-grub as an occasional relish, particularly during the 
breeding season. 
Like all the rest of the Parrots they make no nest, but the female 
lays two or three white eggs on the soft wood of some hollow bough, 
and hatches them in about twenty-one days; there are usually two 
broods in the season, and the young do not attain their full growth 
until they are at least a year old. 
Tho ordinary Slender-billed Cockatoo is a native of southern and 
south-western and eastern Australia, but a kindred species, showing 
much more red in various parts of the plumage is found in the north, 
and was particularly common, according to the late John Gould, in 
the vicinity of Port Easington. 
As a proof that hasty conclusions affecting an entire race should be 
cautiously drawn from observations embracing only a limited number 
of individuals belonging thereto, we may here insert an account of a 
Slender-billed Cockatoo, which we have recently received from a lady 
of our acquaintance; and if objection should be taken, and the remark 
made that this favourable view of the character of the Slender-billed 
one is not more likely to be universally correct, than the unfavourable 
one with which wo opened this paper, we reply that no doubt the 
ti’uth lies between the two extremes, and that as another lady observed, 
when informed that the person with whom she was conversing was an 
Irishman, “Ah! well, there are good and bad in every country.” 
