File:Stories about birds of land and water (1874) (14564218709).jpg

Identifier: storiesaboutbird00kirb (find matches)
Title: Stories about birds of land and water
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Kirby, Mary, 1817-1893 Kirby, Elizabeth, 1823-1873
Subjects: Birds -- Juvenile literature
Publisher: Hartford (Conn.) : American Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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and fastens it to a tree. The bird makes a piteous outcry, and its friendsand companions come back to see what is the matter. Then the nativethrows his spear, and knocks some more of them down. Almost all the cockatoo family are dressed in light rosy-colouredplumage. But there is a great black cockatoo that, as his name tells you,wears nothing but sable. He is a very curious bird, and lives in Australia,and also in the islands near New Guinea, where the Birds of Paradise havetheir home. He has rather a small body, but liis head is very large indeed, and hehas a crest of black feathers. His cheeks are red, and as for his bill, you secwhat it is like by looking in the picture. That bill of his can crack the hardest nut in the forest. The nuts growon a very tall tree, and the shell is as hard as iron. No other bird canmanage to get out the kernel except the black cockatoo. He holds the nutin his foot, and wraps it in a leaf to keep it from slipping, for it is very THE BLACK COCKATOO. 109
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THE CASMALOS COCKATOO. smooth indeed ; and then he digs the sharp end of his bill into it. Hecontrives to get out the kernel with his tongue bit by bit. His tongue is the most curious part of him. It is red, and can be I70 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. pushed out to a great distance. There is a horny kind of plate at theend of it. He is not so noisy as the rest of his tribe, and when he flies he makes nosound. His note is a low plaintive whistle, and the slightest wound kills him.He does not live in company like his relations the parrots ; only two orthree black cockatoos are seen together, and they are not at all common.

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