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Show 1875.] BIRDS FROM QUEENSLAND. 601 161. SCYTHROPS NOV^E-HOLLANDLE. 162. EUDYNAMIS FLINDERSI. 163. CENTROPUS PHASIANUS. These species are all common enough throughout the whole district, the Scythrops usually met with flying about the tops of high trees in companies of five to eight in number; they have a loud harsh guttural croak, which is most usually heard early in the morning. The Eudynamis frequents fruit-bearing trees of every description, and feeds on numerous species of berries found in the scrubs, occasionally visiting gardens in the neighbourhood of the settlements for a like purpose. The Swamp-Pheasant, or Cookoo, as it is usually called (Centropus phasianus), is very numerous and may be always found frequenting the extensive grass-beds throughout the Colony. These birds prey on mice and small animals, holding them with their feet, and tearing them to pieces if they are too large. I once had a pair of Centropus in confinement; and although scarcely nine months old, they readily killed mice or young rats when let go in their cage: first picking them up quickly in their bill and rapping them smartly against the sides of the cage, they soon killed them; but often a peck on the back with their strong bills killed or disabled the animal at once. They eat raw meat, grasshoppers (Locusta), lizards, frogs, or bread readily; they appeared to be omnivorous, and became very tame in a short time. 164. CACATUA GALERITA. This bird seems universally dispersed over the whole of Australia; and they are not one whit the less mischievous in the Cardwell district than any other. I found that they frequent the palm trees when the seeds are ripening; and there perched on the fruiting stems they amused themselves biting off the strings of red or green berries, and watching them as they fell to the ground. 1 have noticed them in New South Wales treating some of the flowering Eucalypti in the same way, and have frequently seen large trees with scarcely a bough untouched, and the whole ground underneath strewed with the leaves and branches. They seldom eat either the blossoms or the capsules of the Eucalypti, although they do feed on the palm- (Ptychosperma alexandree) berries, and afterwards begin their work of destruction. 165. CALYPTORHYNCHUS BANKSII. Not plentiful, one troop of five only met with on the Herbert river. 166. CALYPTORHYNCHUS LEACHII. 167. CALYPTORHYNCHUS FUNEREUS. These seem to be the usual, but not common, species found about the Herbert river and Cardwell. I met them on two or three occasions, but found them very shy. |