PARROTS AND COCKATOOS OF THE FOREST LANDS 14I 
Usually in pairs or small flocks, frequenting heavily timbered mountain 
ranges and adjacent open forest-lands, also banksia scrubs during the 
winter months. It has a slow, laboured flight, and when on the wing 
usually utters a weak but harsh and discordant cry. Usually it is shy 
and wary, but occasionally while feeding the observer can approach 
quite near before it flies olf. Its food consists mostly of seeds of banksias, 
casuarinas, and hakeas, and large white horny grubs found living 
in eucalypts. To reach these grubs it tears off the bark and wood with 
its powerful bill, often making holes 8 or more inches in depth into a 
branch or tree-trunk. It is considered a useful bird, helping to keep in 
check many timber-destroying insect pests. 
nest. In a hollow limb or hole in a tree, usually high up from the 
ground. 
eggs. Usually two, white. Breeding-season: May, June, and fuly 
(Queensland); December and January in the south. 
16. Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksi Latham 
banksia- Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), a naturalist, companion of 
Captain Cook on his first voyage (1768). 
distribution. Australia (except Cape York), and King Island. 
notes. Also called Banks’s Black Cockatoo and Banksian Black 
Cockatoo. Usually in pairs or small flocks, frequenting alike heavily- 
timbered and open forest-lands, also banksia scrubs. Its food consists 
chiefly of seeds of eucalypts, casuarinas, and banksias, and also large 
white grubs, the larvae of longicorn beetles. It is very similar in habits 
to the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. The female is duller in colour 
than the male, and has yellow spots on the head, neck, and cheeks, and 
black bars on the red portion of the tail-feathers. 
nest. In a hollow limb or hole in a tree. 
egg. White. Breeding-season: May to July. 
17. White-tailed Black Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus baudini Lear 
baudini- Captain Baudin (1756-1803), of a French scientific expedi¬ 
tion to Australia. 
distribution. South-western Australia, to Murchison River. 
notes. Also called Baudin's Black Cockatoo. Usually in pairs or 
small flocks, frequenting heavily timbered and open forest-lands, also 
banksia scrubs. It is similar in habits and economy to the other species 
of the genus. 
nest. In a hollow limb or hole in a tree. 
eggs. Two, white. Breeding-season: August to October. 
18. Palm Cockatoo Probosciger aterrimus Gmelin 
Pro-bos'-ci-ger-G k, proboscis, nose; Gk, gero, to carry: a-terr'-i-mus- 
L„ aterrimus, very black. 
distribution. Northern Queensland (Cape York district only); 
also occurs in the Aru Islands and New Guinea. 
L 
