THE SULPHUR- CHESTED COCKATOO. 
21 
tate tlie Immaii voice. As a rule, however, their accomplish- 
ments in this respect extend no farther than to repeating their 
own name, their ordi- 
nary voice being no- 
thing better than a 
harsh and abominable 
shriek. 
The Sulphur-crest- 
ed Cockatoo. — This, 
the commonest of the 
cockatoos, is a splendid 
bird. The ground of 
its plumage is snowy 
white with a tinge of 
orange or rather lemon- 
,, ~ ,, LEMON-CRESTED COCKATOO. 
colour, on the leathery 
crown that surmounts its head. The longer feathers of this 
crest measure as much as seven or eight inches in length. In 
various parts of Australia they abound in vast flocks. Says 
Mary Howitt, “ It is a pleasant sight to see a large flock of 
these great white cockatoos. ‘ What a splendid flock of geese,’ 
say you, ‘ sitting on yonder green meadow ! How beautifully 
snowy white they are ! ’ Your geese, my friend, are cockatoos. 
There they sit, hundreds, thousands of them, basking motionless 
in the sun, and in charming contrast to the rich green grass. 
How don’t get down your gun and attempt to shoot any of 
them, for they require three days’ stewing to make them 
tender. But yet do as you please, for you will only have your 
labour for your pains. Quiet as they seem, and still as so 
many stones, they have their sentinels on the alert, and before 
you could come within a Minie rifle reach of them, they 
would be up and almost rend your ears with their rasping 
cries. Of all lovely birds, they have the most horrible 
grating screech, and when a whole flock of thousands is 
passing over, it is, as you lovers of Latin would say, monstrum 
horrendum” 
And yet that sound is often a delightful one to the traveller, 
for where the cockatoos are, water is not far off. They are 
pretty sure to rest in the tall red-gums which skirt a brook or 
river. Hot so swfeet, however, is the scraping note of the white 
cockatoos to the farmer, for they are dreadful plunderers of the 
corn crops. They assemble by thousands about the ripening 
wheat-fields, and what is a flock of sparrows to them ! Havoc 
