An Australian Bird Book: A Pocket Book for Field UseLeach, John Albert
Science
An Australian Bird Book: A Pocket Book for Field Use
Leach, John Albert
Birds -- Australia
The sombre, slow-flying Black Cockatoo is the largest of all
Cockatoos. It is seen fairly often in small companies, especially on
wattles and eucalypts, the wood of which it tears to pieces with its
powerful bill to get the insect larvæ feeding there. It is a valuable
forest-saving bird.
The Glossy or Leach Black Cockatoo is named after Dr. Leach, who did a
great amount of work on Australian animals about 100 years ago. It is
a rare bird, and may readily be distinguished by its smaller size and
more glossy plumage.
The peculiar gray Gang-gang Cockatoos are common in parts of the
forest country. The male is easily recognized by his red head and
crest. I occasionally see these interesting birds in the big eucalypt
forests of Gippsland. I was surprised to discover that, in South
Gippsland, it is generally called the Galah, a name which belongs to
quite a different bird (194).
The screeching, fussy White Cockatoo, with its delicate sulphur crest,
is well known. Many country dwellers enjoy the privilege of often
seeing these snowy-white birds almost covering a dead tree. They
are favorites as pets, and live to a good old age. They render good
service at times by digging up and eating grasshoppers' eggs, though
they do damage to maize and other crops. As they post sentinels, they
are difficult birds to approach.
The Pink Cockatoo (Major Mitchell) is unfortunately becoming rare. It
was fairly common when I taught in a Mallee school, near where Hopetoun
now is. It has been described as "quite the most beautiful of all the
Cockatoos, being a harmony of delicate rose-pink and white, with a
handsome crest of acuminate feathers barred in crimson, yellow, and
white." It does not take kindly to captivity. It nested in the smaller
"spouts" of the green "box-trees" in the "box-flats" and swamps about
the Goyura School, south of Lake Corrong.
What is more glorious than a mob of Rose-breasted Cockatoos
(Galahs), 500 strong, airing their beauties and graces as they take a
constitutional before retiring for the night? Probably no other kind
of bird shows better company-flying than Galahs; now one sheet of
a delicate gray lavender, and the next instant a flash of brilliant
salmon-pink, as the whole company turns and wheels, obedient to some
command or signal unperceived by us; again, the sun lights up the
pale-pink crests and gray backs, as they turn once more and wheel,
screeching, to continue their evolutions further afield. It is a sight
that lingers in the memory. They are charming pets, and some talk
well. Their beauty adds charm to our almost perfectly level great
inland plains.
The delicately-colored and friendly Cockatoo Parrot, with its
immovable crest, takes a sub-family to itself. It migrates from the
North, and, in a dry year, may even reach the South Coast. In 1908
some of these birds reached Colac, in Southern Victoria. They are
favorite aviary birds, and thousands have been exported.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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