94 AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGY. 
Habits. — It frequents swampy situations, and although 
numerous, is wary and not easy of approach. Sturt met with it in 
thousands on Evelyn’s Plains, near the Dep6t, where it was observed 
feeding voraciously on the seeds of a species of kidney-bean, and 
making a deafening noise, its voice being very harsh and disagree- 
able. It is often seen feeding in company with the well-known 
sulphur-crested species. 
Where found. —This species is a denizen of the north and central 
portions of the Australian continext ; it does not seem to occur on 
the open land near Cape York, and is probably limited in its eastern 
range to the 140th meridian of longitude. It is very common near 
Port Essington and the Alligator River, It is found in New South 
Wales at its north-western extremity. 
Nidification.—Its mode of breeding is the same as that of other 
members of this extensive family. 
Specimens of four species are exhibited in a group at the 
Macleay museum, Sydney, the first three beiug from the Murrum- 
bidgee district. There is also the long-billed cockatoo (Licmetis 
nasicus) from the same locality. The last is met with near 
Narrandera, and generally in New South Wales, Victoria, South 
Australia, the interior, also near the Gulf of Carpentaria, thus 
occupying the eastern half of the continent. The long-billed 
cockatoo usually exercises great care in placing its nest out of the 
way of human enemies, choosing one of the most inaccessible trees, 
in the dead branch of which it deposits its eggs. They are white 
and three in number, oval, and rather pointed at the smaller end ; 
the shell is inclined to be rough. An average specimen measures 
14x 1-linches. The breeding season commences in August and 
lasts during the two following months. 
Witp Turkey, or AUSTRALIAN Bustarp—Ofis 
australasianus. 
Introduction.—-During the first fifty years of the existence of 
New South Wales no specimens of this fine bird were transmitted to 
Europe with the vast collections of Australian birds that had been 
sent thither. A single specimen had for a long time formed part of 
the collection of the Linnean Society, but nothing whatever was 
known of its history. In size this species exceeds the European 
bustard, standing higher upon its legs and having a longer neck ; 
and when seen at freedom slowly stalking over its native plains, no 
Australian bird, except the cassowary and emu, is so majestic or 
assumes in its carriage so great an air of independence. Mr. Gould 
in 1838 found the native turkey to be one of the most abundant, 
and one of the most widely and generally dispersed of the larger 
birds inhabiting terra Australis. 
Description. —It is larger and heavier than the domestic turkey. 
The plumage of the crown of the head and the hack of it is black ; 
