The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-09-27
The adIiea Daily gayle sunday Informing September ~ 1881
COCKATOO HUNTING.
AUSTRALIAN SPORT WHICH TRIES
THE HUNTERS SKILL.

Bird That Has a Voice Which scsrel
Away Desirable Game-How the Beau.
tifuI Creature Is Silenced-Ths White
and the Black COckatoo.
The first that offers itself Is large bird
which has a 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 oven
to the mission station. He and his con-
geners, TO the number of several hundred,
were found feeding in q 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 a more woody stem, which
is execrated by the farmers, in spite of its
beauty, because of it's tendency to over
spread che soil like devouring fire.
The fondness of the cockatoo for the
seeds of the cape weed very greatly cur
tails its extension, and in season of its
npening they I'LL 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 alert 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 a yelling mob 300
strong, forYng conopy OF futtering
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 mudhols
about ten feet wide (the only one within
mile of the place., and irremediably ruins
his delicate plumage; the other, more con-
siderate, thumps down upon the turf with
out a feather ruff1ed, innocent of blood
stain or deflement of the soil. This is his
skin which is before US, the feathers like a
snow field across which falls the ray of a
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 fling is music to
it. and compared thereto the "devil's i'd
1au Sc iyo4a - 80 IL - L..
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 a clear
ing and alarm the country for q mile
around, under which circumstances, feel
ing himself quite safe, he may be stalked
by simple stratagem. ! discovered this
myself under the following circumstances:
| had been excessively annoyed by a 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.
I bethought me of a trick successfully
used for attracting antelopes upon the
western plains of the United States, and
pulling scarlet silk handkerchief out of
my pocket began waving it from side to
side, advancing meanwhile upon the enc
my. He saw the fluttering symbol and at
once became silent, siding up and down |
his perch with mingled excitement and ap-
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 l came |
directly under the tree on which "cocky" |
was sitting, dropped the handkerchief |
and raised my gun. The bird took fight /
with loud shrieks; there was a puff of /
smoke, white cloud fell into the fern,
second sulphur crested skin there |
S my memento of the occasion.
The white cockatoo has larger and |
more powerful cousin, the black cockatoo,
which presents, indeed, two species, of
which one has patch of scarlet under the
all, the other hands width Of brilliant
Iatanic looking, bird, with enormously
powerful bills, with which they tear off
he bark of trees in long strips, cut into
he wood with blows that sound like ham,
ners and leave marks like chisels, and
lraw from their burrowed highways in the
timber the fat white grubs which consti-
ute their favorite food.
The black fellows are fond Of this deli
.acy also, and when you are out with them
hey will often cut a hole in tree with
heir hatchets and present to you from it
he squirming, nauseous worm which their
Iuick instinct had showed them was with
n. If you decline the morsel-as Is prob
lble-they devour it themselves with in
mite gusto, and with i'll concealed con-
empt at the white fellows" inability to
appreciate luxuries.-Cor. Boston Journal
|