OCR Text |
Show Again takiog the nut In Its claw tlie bird inserts the very long and sharp point of its bill into the hole just made and picks out the kernel, which is tciced flake by flake by the horny end of the loug and Ueiiblo tongue. More time is required to tell about this nut cracking than the bird takes to perform per-form the operatiou. for tbe cockatoo is a very rapid feeder and will consume a great many nuts iu an hour. Great Black Cockatoo. In the islands of tho Malay Archipelago Archi-pelago is found the great black cockatoo, cocka-too, whose special food is the kernel of the kauari nut. aud the shell of which is said to be harder thau that of any other nut, and to protect a kernel nf most delicate flavor. The kanari tree irrows to a great height and bears a fleshy fruit which incloses an extremely extreme-ly hard shell of glass-like smoothness of surface. . Within this shell are from one to three kernels covered with a thin skin; when this is removed the nut falls into a number of irregular flakes of snowy whiteness and delicious taste. The fleshy part of the kanari fruit is saten bv many birds, particularly by the large wood-pigeons, but only the black cockatoo is able to get at the nut, which it does by the great strength of its immense, sharply pointed and hooked beak. Taking a nut end-wise in its bill and keeping it firm by a pressure of the horny end of its tongue, tbe cockatoo cuts a notch across the shell bv a sawing motion of the sharp edge of the lower part of the beak. This done, the bird takes hold of the uut with one foot while biting off a piece of a thick leaf. This it wraps arouud the nut to prevent tbe glassy shell from slipping, while it uses tbe upper part of its beak to hold tbe nut and the under part to insert in the notch already made and wrench off piece of the'sbell by a powerful nip. |