Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-09-25
COCKAT0O HUNTING.
AUSTRALIAN SPORT. WHICH TRIES
THE HUNTERS SKILL.

| A Bird That Has a Voice Which Scares
tiiul Creature Is SiIenced-The White
! and the Black Cockatoo.
The first that offers itself is a large bird
| which has curved, horny and massive
beck and strong claws, both of jetty black,
feathers of white, stained family with vel
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 devouring fire
The fondness of the cockatoo for the
seeds of the cape weed very greatly cur
tails It's 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 cockatoo5 are alert and
wary, and spring into the air with harsh
screams as we approach, then, with the
curiosity which is their strongest charac-
terstic. wheel over us in a yelling mob 800
strong, forming conopy of fiuttering
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.
A TROUBLE TO HUNTERS
One, after the usual experience in such
cases, chooses to drop into a mudhoie
about ten feet wide (the only one within
mile of the place., and irremedably ruins
his delicate plumage; the other, more con
siderate, thumps down upon the turf with
out feather ruffled, innocent of blood
stain or deilement of the soil. This is his
skin which is before us, the feathers like
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 "devil's fid- |
die" is interpretive of the concords of the |
spheres. The bird is a great nuisance to the
hunter, by his noisy clanor alarming
ducks, kankaroos and all other manner of
game, and following for miles the carrier
of a gun with wild outbursts of orntho
logical profanity. In the ardor of his
vtuperation he sometimes forgets him
self and flies within range, and it is a self |
contained sportsman indeed who can resist |
the temptation to "pot" him under these
circumstances.
Often, too, he will perch upon the top of
dead gum tree in the middle of Il clear
ing and alarm the country for a mile
around, under which circumstances, feel
ing himself quite safe, he may be stalked
by Il simple stratagem. | discovered this
myself under the following circumstances:
| had been excessively annoyed by a cock
atoo which had followed and execrated me
for couple of hours, yet always keeping
well out of range upon isolated trees.
STALKING 4 COCK AT0O.
| bethought ME of a 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 APP
prehension, and craning his head forward
ard 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 Il puff of
smoke, a white cloud fell into the fern,
and-the second sulphur crested skin there
is my memento of the occasion.
The white cockatoo has Il larger and
more powerful cousin, the black coclatoo,
which presents, indeed, two species, of
which one has patch OF scarlet under the
tail, the other hands width of brilliant
yellow. They are a 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, ana
draw from their burrowed highways in the
timber the fat white giubs 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 q hole in a 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 III
finite gusto, and with i'll concealed con
tempt at the "white fellows" inability to
appreciate iuxuries. Boston Journal.