The flight of the Cockatoo Parrakeet is even and easy, and is capable of being long protracted. When roused from the ground it flies up into the nearest tree, almost invariably selecting a dead branch, upon which it frequently perches lengthwise. It is by no means a shy bird, so that any number may be shot: from the circumstance of its being excellent eating many are annually killed for the purposes of the table. Its form admirably adapts it for terrestrial progression, hence it is enabled readily to procure the seeds of the various grasses, upon which it almost solely subsists.
As a cage-bird this species is particularly interesting, becoming readily domesticated, playful and amusing. The accompanying Plate is from a beautiful drawing made by Mr. Lear, from two living birds in the possession of the Countess of Mountcharles.
Considerable difference exists in the plumage of the sexes, the tail-feathers of the male being entirely destitute of the transverse bars which adorn those of the other sex.
It breeds in the holes of gum and other trees growing on the flats and in the neighbourhood of water. The eggs are white, five or six in number, one inch long by three quarters of an inch broad.
The male has the forehead, crest and cheeks lemon yellow; ear-coverts rich reddish orange; back of the neck, two centre tail-feathers, and the external margins of the primaries brownish grey; back, shoulders, all the under surface and outer tail-feathers greyish chocolate brown, the shoulders and flanks being the darkest; a white mark extends from the shoulders lengthwise down the centre of the wing; irides dark brown; bill bluish lead-colour, lighter on the under side of the lower mandible; legs and feet bluish grey.
The female differs from the male in the colour of the face and crest being of a dull olive yellow, the latter becoming still darker at its extremity; in having the throat greyish brown, and the back lighter than in the male; the lower part of the abdomen, upper tail-coverts, yellow; four middle tail-feathers grey, the remainder yellow, the whole transversely and irregularly barred with lines of brown, with the exception of the outer web of the outer feather on each side, which is pure yellow.