238 A. Martin—The Breeding of Leadbeater’s Cockatoo


twelve days old. The young were duly hatched, as I could hear faint

squeaks coming from the nesting log. After two days, however, they

were thrown out of the nest, and one evening I found three dead. So

ended our hopes of young Leadbeater’s for 1937, and I said to myself,

as I have said many times before, now we must wait until next

year ; but it was a sad disappointment.


Then came the spring of 1938 and during early March the old

Leadbeater’s began using the nesting log which had been left in their

flight all the winter. I made up my mind, however, I would not even

take a peep.


It was during middle April that one morning I heard the unmistak¬

able sound of young coming from the log. The old birds had by now

become very savage, attacking anyone who entered, even to feed them,

and more than once I had to defend myself as they were really dangerous.

All their food had to be thrown through the wires on to the floor,

but I think this served a good purpose, for they seemed very fond of

germinated seed and fed their young quite freely with it. As time went

on I wondered if the same thing would happen as in the previous year,

and that they would murder the young again ; but they seemed to

have amended their ways, and were quite good parents. At about

seven weeks I saw a beautiful young Leadbeater peeping out of the

log, and at eight weeks he was out of the log and flying strongly.

Three days later two more were out, and I have never seen a more

beautiful sight as they sat side by side wflth their parents.


After they had been out about fourteen days the old hen attacked

one of the young so badly that I had to remove all three. I thought

I should lose the one that had been pecked and bitten so badly. It was

covered with blood, but happily after it had been caged a few days it

made a complete recovery, and all three are now doing well and

fending for themselves, and the old birds seem to be going to nest

again. The breeding of these birds has given me great pleasure, and

I firmly believe that this success was partly gained by throwing the

seed on the floor.



