cockatoo

I.

n.

1) Bird-name. The word is Malay, Kakatua. (`O.E.D.') The varieties are – – Banksian Cockatoo – – Calyptorhynchus banksii, Lath.

♣ Bare-eyed C. – – Cacatua gymnopis, Sclater.

♣ Black C. – – Calyptorhynchus funereus, Shaw.

♣ Blood-stained C. – – Cacatua sanguinea, Gould.

♣ Dampier's C. – – Licmetis pastinator, Gould.

♣ Gang-gang C. – – Callocephalon galeatum, Lath. [See gang-gang.]

♣ Glossy C. – – Calyptorhynchus viridis, Vieill.

♣ Long-billed C. – – Licmetis nasicus, Temm. [See Corella.]

♣ Palm C. – – Microglossus aterrimus, Gmel.

♣ Pink C. – – Cacatua leadbeateri, V. & H. (Leadbeater, q.v.).

♣ Red-tailed C. – – Calyptorhynchus stellatus, Wagl.

♣ Rose-breasted C. – – Cacatua roseicapilla, Vieill. [See galah. Gould calls it Cocatua eos.

♣ White C. – – Cacatua galerita, Lath.

♣ White-tailed C. – – Calyptorhynchus baudinii, Vig.

See also parrakeet.

1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 62:

«We saw to-day for the first time on the Kalare, the redtopcockatoo (Plyctolophus Leadbeateri).»

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' c. viii. p. 272:

«The rose-breasted cockatoo ( Cocatua eos, Gould) visitedthe patches of fresh burnt grass.»

Ibid. p. 275:

«The black cockatoo ( Calyptorhynchus Banksii) has beenmuch more frequently observed of late.»

1857. Daniel Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 175:

«Dr. Leichhardt caught sight of a number of cockatoos; and,by tracking the course of their flight, we, in a short time,reached a creek well supplied with water.»

1862. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,'c. ix. p. 331:

«White cockatoos and parroquets were now seen.»

1890. `Victorian Statutes, Game Act, Third Schedule':

«Black Cockatoos. Gang-gang Cockatoos. [Close season.] Fromthe 1st day of August to the 10th day of December nextfollowing in each year.»

1893. `The Argus,' March 25, p.4, col. 6:

«The egg of the blood-stained cockatoo has not yet beenscientifically described, and the specimen in this collectionhas an interest chiefly in that it was taken [by Mr. A. J.Campbell] from a tree at Innamincka waterholes, not far fromthe spot where Burke the explorer died.»

2) A small farmer, called earlier in Tasmania a Cockatooer (q.v.). The name was originally given incontempt (see quotations), but it is now used by farmersthemselves. Cocky is a common abbreviation. Some peopledistinguish between a cockatoo and a ground-parrot, the latter being the farmer on a verysmall scale. Trollope's etymology (see quotation, 1873) willnot hold, for it is not true that the cockatoo scratches theground. After the gold fever, circa 1860, the selectorsswarmed over the country and ate up the substance of thesquatters; hence they were called Cockatoos. The wordis also used adjectivally.

1863. M. K. Beveridge, `Gatherings among the Gum-trees,'p. 154:

«Oi'm going to be married

To what is termed a Cockatoo – – Which manes a farmer.»

1867. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 110:

«These small farmers are called cockatoos in Australia by thesquatters or sheep-farmers, who dislike them for buying up thebest bits on their runs; and say that, like a cockatoo, thesmall freeholder alights on good ground, extracts all he canfrom it, and then flies away, to `fresh fields and pasturesnew.' . . . However, whether the name is just or not, it is arecognised one here; and I have heard a man say in answer to aquestion about his usual `occupation, `I'm a cockatoo.'»

1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,'vol. ii. p. 135:

«The word cockatoo in the farinaceous colony has become socommon as almost to cease to carry with it the intendedsarcasm. . . . It signifies that the man does not reallytill his land, but only scratches it as the bird does.»

1882. A. J. Boyd, `Old Colonials,' p. 32:

«It may possibly have been a term of reproach applied to theindustrious farmer, who settled or perched on the resumedportions of a squatter's run, so much to the latter's rage anddisgust that he contemptuously likened the farmer to thewhite-coated, yellow-crested screamer that settles or percheson the trees at the edge of his namesake's clearing.»

1889. `Cornhill Magazine,' Jan., p. 33:

«`With a cockatoo' [Title]. Cockatoo is the name givento the small, bush farmer in New Zealand.»

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xliii. p. 377:

«The governor is a bigoted agriculturist; he has contractedthe cockatoo complaint, I'm afraid.»

1893, `The Argus,' June 17, p. 13, col. 4:

«Hire yourself out to a dairyman, take a contract with arail-splitter, sign articles with a cockatoo selector;but don't touch land without knowing something about it.»

II.

v. intr.

1) To be a farmer.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xx. p. 245:

«Fancy three hundred acres in Oxfordshire, with a score or twoof bullocks,and twice as many black-faced Down sheep. Regularcockatooing.»

2) A special sense – – to sit on a fence as the bird sits.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. p. 224:

«The correct thing, on first arriving at a drafting-yard, is to`cockatoo,' or sit on the rails high above the tossinghorn-billows.»