Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-10-10
COCKA,rOO HUNTING.
AUSTRALIAN SPORT WHICH TRIES
THE HUNTERS SKILL.

A Bird That Has a Voice Which Scares
Away Desirable Game-How the Beau
tiful Creature Is Silenced-The White
and the Black Cockatoo.
The first that offers itself is large bird
which has curved, horny and massive
beck and strong claws, both of jetty black,
feathers of white, stained family with yell
low, like old ivory, and an imposing crest
of sulphur colored plumes This is the
great sulphur crested cockatoo, one of the
most familiar, as it is one of the most
beautiful, birds in Australia. We made
this birds acquaintance as we drove over
to the mission station. He and his con-
geners, to the number of several hundred,
were found feeding in a broad, open
savanna on the side of the River Avon,
where the grass was hidden from sight by
the yellow circles of the cape weed-a
flower somewhat resembling the dande-
lion, but with more woody stem, which
is execrated by the farmers. in spite of its
beauty, because of its tendency to over
spread the soil like a devouripg fire.
The fondness of the cockatoo for the
seeds of the cape weed very greatly cur
tails its extension, and in season of its
ripening they fill to their utmost capacity
the crops of these birds. One might look
far to see prettier sight than that which
is afforded by flock of several hundred of
these snowy cockatoos walking about in
the sea of yellow which the acres of cape
weed form. The cockatoos are aler TT and
wary, and spring into the air with harsh
screams as we approach; then, with the
curiosity which is their strongest charac-
teristic, wheel over us in yelling mob 300
strong, forming conopy of fluttering
ivory through which the sunlight falls in
exquisite shades of tender color.
Two guns bark in the midst of the
wheeling and screeching cohorts; the re-
ports of the second barrels Immediately
follow-feathers fly in every direction, but
only two cockatoos fall.
TROUBLE TO HUNTERS.
One, after the usual experience in such
cases, chooses to drop into mudhole
about ten feet wide (the only one within a
mile of the place., and irremediably ruins
his delicate plumage; the other, more con-
siderate, thumps down upon the turf with
out a feather ruffled, innocent of blood
stain or defilement of the soil. This is his
skin which is before us, the feathers like a
snow field across which falls the ray of
yellow sunset, shaded with indescribable
delicacy from the brilliant sulphur color of
the recurved crest to the immaculate
feathers, whittier than this paper, which
form his spreading tail.
No one who has not heard the voice of
the cockatoo can understand the limits of
cacophonic sound; saw filing is music to
it, and compared thereto the devils fid-
die" is interpretive of the concords of the
spheres. The bird is great nuisance to the
hunter, by his noisy clamor alarming
ducks, kankaroos and all other manner of
game, and following for miles the carrier
of gun with wild outbursts of ornitho-
logical profanity. In the ardor of his
vituperation he sometimes forgets him
self and flies within range, and it is self
contained sportsman indeed who can resist
the temptation to pot" him under these
circumstances.
Often, too, he will perch upon the top of
a dead gum tree in the middle of clear
ing and alarm the country for a mile
around, under which circumstances, feel
ing himself quite safe, he may be stalked
by simple stratagem. l discovered this
| myself under the following circumstances:
had been excessively annoyed by cock
atoo which had followed and execrated me
for a couple of hours, yet always keeping
well out of range upon isolated trees.
STALKING A CoCKAToO.
bethought me of trick successfully
| used for attracting antelopes upon the
western plains of the United States, and
pulling a scarlet silk handkerchief out of
my pocket began waving it from side to
side, advancing meanwhile upon the enc
| my. He saw the fiuttering symbol and at
once became silent, siding up and down
his perch with mingled excitement and ap-
prehension, and craning his head forward
and downward in a most ludicrous fash
ion in his endeavor to define the nature of
the phenomenon. In this manner ! came
directly under the tree on which "cocky"
| was sitting, dropped the handkerchief
and raised my gun. The bird took flight
| with loud shrieks; there was a puff of
smoke, white cloud fell into the fern,
| and-the second sulphur crested skin there
| is my memento of the occasion.
The white cockatoo has a larger and
more powerful cousin, the black cockatoo
which presents, indeed, two species, of
| which one has patch of scarlet under the
| tail. the other hands width of brilliant
| yellow. They are saturnine, not to say
satanic looking, bird, with enormously
| powerful bills, with which they tear off
| the bark of trees in long strips, cut into
the wood with blows that sound like ham
| mers and leave marks like chisels, and
| draw from their burrowed highways in the
| timber the fat white CUBS which consti
| tute their favorite food.
| The black fellows are fond of this deli
cacy also, and when you are out with them
| they will often cut hole in tree with
| their hatchets and present to you from it
| the squirming, nauseous worm which their
| quick instinct had showed them was with
! in. If you decline the morsel-as is prob
able-they devour it themselves with in
| finite Gusto, and with i'll concealed con-
/ tempt at the white fellows" inability to
| appreciate iuxuries.-Cor Boston Journal
Too Emphatic.