Chapter 4 - Cockatoos

X he chief difference between other members of the parrot family and cockatoos is, of course, that the latter possess crests, and these vary considerably in shape and size.

Many of them have fan-shaped crests and far the most beautiful as well as the largest of these adorns Leadbeater's Cockatoo. The Roseate's is rather the shape of a Roman helmet, while that of the quaint but attractive little Gang-Gang resembles a lady's feathered toque.

Cockatoos are not round at all in the New World, their habitat being exclusively the continent of Australia and the neighboring islands.

Generally speaking, they are gregarious, some of them remaining in large flocks even during the breeding season— a period when many birds tend to leave the flock and go off separately in pairs.

Fond as one may be of one's own pet cockatoo, it is hardly surprising that the mere mention of such a bird makes an Australian farmer see red, for, being grain eaters, they are apt to descend upon his growing crops in vast flocks, doing an untold amount of damage at a single sitting. Consequently every means is employed to destroy them, including shooting, poisoning and trapping, and the last of these methods accounted for the fact that in pre-war days there never used to be any dearth of the better-known Australian cockatoos on the market. They have always been popular cage and aviary birds and some, though not all of them, make quite good talkers.

Many of them are noted for their longevity in confinement, particularly, perhaps, the Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo whose recorded life-span of anything up to and even beyond 130 years makes that of man seem puny by comparison. Other species may be equally long-lived, but the Greater Sulphur-crested probably holds the record, as it was among the first of the cockatoos to be imported into Europe.

Like most things, cockatoos have their advantages and their disadvantages. Among the latter must be listed their powerful and destructive beaks and their loud and harsh voices; and among the former the delightfully charming and affectionate dispositions of really tame specimens, which I think are even more demonstrative to their human friends than are tame parrots.

Incidentally, very tame cockatoos are usually quite useless for breeding purposes as they lose all interest in other cockatoos and centre their affections entirely on humanity. I myself have just such a one, and although she will lay eggs and sit, the eggs are always clear as she refuses to let the cock pair with her. She also has a tendency to come off her eggs if she hears one of her human friends passing the aviary. I am told that at one time she was kept for a while at liberty, but the sight of her beloved human beings playing cricket on the village green on a Saturday afternoon so delighted her that she flew eagerly down to settle on each of them in turn, thus completely disrupting the game! Eventually her extreme fondness for humans made her rather a nuisance at liberty and she had to be confined.

Male and female cockatoos become equally tame, but I should say that males make the better talkers. Certain cockatoos are none too easy to sex, but in the majority of the better-known white species the iris of the male's eye is very dark while that of the female is much paler.

A tame cockatoo in a cage should be taken a lot of notice of and let out as often as possible. It should also be given plenty to occupy it and exercise its beak upon—an empty cotton-reel being excellent for this purpose. Its owner should realize when he buys a bird that he is taking on an obligation, which goes far beyond simply keeping it supplied with food and water. These are mere essentials, and any bird-keeper worth his salt will give his pet plenty of affection and use his imagination to supply those small extra attentions which make all the difference between a bored, bedraggled captive and a really happy, healthy and contented pet. This, of course, entails a certain amount of trouble for the owner, but I know of few ways of expending energy that are so infinitely rewarding.

One thing that must be avoided at all costs and which is rather a temptation to children, is teasing a cockatoo in order to make it raise its crest and screech. Such treatment is completely ruinous to the temper of a pet bird, and in connection with this I feel I cannot do better than quote the following very pertinent passage from Greene's well-known nearly 100-year old book Parrots in Captivity:

This practice [teasing] spoils most of the excitable birds of the parrot and cockatoo tribes, and although it may be very entertaining to see them get into a terrible passion, throw up their wings and crests, and give vent to their wrath in shrieks of fiery indignation, still a bird that is provoked to such exhibitions of temper will soon become a nuisance to any household, and no amount of subsequent good treatment and petting will eradicate the tendency to give way to uncontrolled outbursts of passion upon the most trivial provocation. Which is perfectly true: so let the reader see to it that the cockatoo or parrot he, or she, has become possessed of be not subjected to such treatment, or the consequences will be that bird and master, after awhile, will be unable to live in the same house together.

Cockatoos in an aviary revel in a rain bath, and caged specimens should either be put out in their cage in a light summer shower, or, if this is impossible, be sprayed indoors with a fine spray of tepid rainwater.

A cockatoo's cage should be as large as possible, and care should be taken to ensure that the bird's crest when fully spread does not come in contact with the top of the cage, otherwise its appearance will be spoiled.

They make very beautiful aviary birds and are particularly lovely to watch in flight, so the bigger the aviary the better. The larger species can only be contained in the stoutest gauge wire netting, preferably of the chain-link variety, and as a family they are terribly destructive to the woodwork of their aviary, necessitating its being covered with sheet zinc or small netting. Much the best plan is for the framework of the aviary to be of tubular metal instead of wood, as this is not only proof against their beaks, but also lasts practically indefinitely.

Cockatoos should be fed chiefly upon sunflower seed and monkey-nuts, with small quantities of canary seed and oats or groats as well as a pinch of hemp every other day; when they are breeding, the latter should be given daily and the amount considerably increased as it is a valuable rearing food. Wheat can also be offered, particularly to the larger species, and most cockatoos appreciate a piece of stale bread soaked in sweetened milk and this can be given occasionally as a titbit. In my experience the majority of cockatoos are not particularly keen on fruit but are very fond of the usual wild green-foods, also the leaves of cultivated spinach-beet and particularly the midribs of seakale-beet.

A pet cockatoo is often kept in a cage in the dining room and although it may clamor for them, it is a great mistake to overload its stomach with too many titbits from the table, particularly as it is only able to take a limited amount of exercise. Meat and savories should be avoided at all costs but such things as vegetables, custard and flakes of boiled white fish are all wholesome provided they are not given too often and then only in very small quantities. Some people deprecate the giving of titbits at all, but I think they tend to provide a pet bird with variety—which is the spice of life, so long as it is not overdone.

Banksian Cockatoo

See Black Cockatoos

Bare-Eyed Cockatoo (Ducorpsius gytnnopsis)

The Bare-eyed Cockatoo is exactly like the Bloodstained Cockatoo, described later, except that the eye is at the top instead of in the middle of the area of bare skin. Otherwise the two species are exact counterparts of each other.

Habitat: South Australia.

Black Cockatoos

I will only deal very briefly with these cockatoos because even the best known of them, the Banksian, is very seldom kept as a pet.

The Banksian Cockatoo (Caliptorhynctus banksii) is hardly ever to be met with in private collections, but is quite often exhibited at zoos, sometimes in cages far too small for it, and in establishments that ought to know better. Since it is a huge bird 27 inches long, even the largest size of ordinary parrot-cage is totally inadequate for housing it, and anybody or any zoo that is not prepared to go to the expense of having an aviary or else a special cage constructed for Banksians should not keep them at all. To my mind such a cage should measure not less than about 4 feet long by 2 feet wide by 3 feet high, with a perch each end.

They are really only seen at their best in very large outdoor aviaries such as those in which the late Duke of Bedford used to keep them, but as these have to be of cast-iron strength owing to the power of their beaks, they are extremely costly to erect.

Banksians inhabit Australia and are handsome creatures, the male being black with a brilliant scarlet bar across the outer tail feathers while the female is also black but has much of her plumage barred, spotted and freckled with pale yellow and orange.

Generally speaking, female Banksians do not regard the human race with favor. Males, on the other hand, usually delight in human company and readily become extremely tame and affectionate though I have never heard of one that said more than a word or two.

They should be fed on the same diet as other cockatoos plus a little maize, but are said to eat many wood grubs in a wild state. In this country they are very fond of the white grub to be found in an "oak apple" or gall.

My pair would never eat mealworms but I should think they might eat gentles. They are rather subject to tuberculosis and I used to bring mine into a very large cage in a heated bird-room for the winter.

The Funereal Cockatoo (Zanda funerea) is another Australian species, which, though apparently by no means rare in a wild state, was never imported into Europe with any regularity.

It is slightly smaller than the Banksian, being 24-75 inches in length. It is mainly brownish-black with the feathers of the upper surface bordered with brown and those of the underparts tipped with palish yellow. There is a yellow patch on the cheeks.

Cockatoos of this species are said to become very tame and to make affectionate pets.

Feeding and housing should be as for the Banksian.

The White-Tailed Black Cockatoo (Zanda baudini) has hardly ever been imported, and I have heard from more than one source that it is very difficult to get it on to a normal cockatoo diet of seed and nuts, fruit and green-food even in confinement in its own country.

Mr. Seth-Smith once told me that many years ago in Australia he saw a tree, from which most of the bark had been stripped, covered with these cockatoos and he decided to shoot one in order to examine the contents of its crop. The latter proved to be entirely full of wood-boring grubs and I have no doubt that here is the reason why it is so difficult to get them to feed in confinement.

The White-tailed Black Cockatoo is brownish-black with the feathers bordered with pale buffish and there is a whitish-buff patch on the cheeks. The outer tail feathers are barred with white and the total length of the bird is 23 inches.

Great Black Cockatoo

See Palm Cockatoo

Bloodstained Cockatoo (Ducorpsius sanguineus)

This short-crested cockatoo hardly deserves its gory and unattractive name.

The male is white with the inner webs of the flights and the under surface of the tail pale sulphury yellow. The feathers of the head and neck are pink at their bases, and there is some pink in the area between the eye and the beak. The eye is in the centre of a more or less egg-shaped patch of bare blue-grey skin. The bill is horn-color.

Length: 16-9 inches.

The female resembles the male, but is said to be slightly-smaller.

The species is generally distributed throughout the inland areas of Australia where it is known as the Little Corella.

It seems to be very common, assembling we are told in enormous flocks, particularly when the breeding season is over, and, unlike most cockatoos which are usually described as pests in a wild state owing to their habit of raiding grain crops, this bird would actually appear to be the Farmer's Friend! Apparently two of its favorite foods are the seeds of "paddy melon", a rampant Australian weed which is believed to cause paralysis and blindness in horses; and "double-gees", the seeds of which cause sheep to go lame.

I do not know if the bird is officially protected in any way, but with these good works to its credit it certainly deserves kindlier treatment than the incessant persecution which is the unhappy lot of so many of the Australian members of the parrot family.

One most remarkable thing recorded about these cockatoos in a wild state is that they have been known to turn Roseates out of their nesting holes; add their own eggs to theirs; and finally rear a mixed brood consisting of their own young as well as the young Roseates!

The Bloodstained Cockatoo makes a most delightful and affectionate pet and has the reputation of being a talented talker.

It was bred at the London Zoo in 1907 and is perfectly hardy and able to winter in a suitable outdoor aviary without artificial heat, but it is more usually kept singly as a pet bird in a cage.

Its feeding should be the same as that recommended for the Slender-billed Cockatoo.

Blue-Eyed Cockatoo (Kakatce ophthalmica)

The rarely-imported Blue-eyed Cockatoo, inhabiting New Britain and measuring 19 inches in length, is much like the Greater Sulphur-crested, except that it has an area of naked blue skin round the eye.

Citron-Crested Cockatoo {Kakatce dtrino-cristata)

Before the war this bird was very seldom imported. Subsequently, however, quite a number seem to have been brought over to Great Britain and they are still occasionally offered for sale.

The Citron-crested is to my mind one of the most beautiful of the white cockatoos, with its large bright orange crest; a patch on the cheeks and the under-surface of the flights lemon yellow; and the whole of the rest of the plumage snow white—a lovely colour scheme. The beak is black, and in the male the eye is almost black too.

They are easy birds to sex as the hen has a lighter eye, the iris being brown, and she is also a trifle slimmer about the head and neck.

Total length: about 14 inches, the bird being quite perceptibly larger than its better-known relative, the Lesser Sulphur-crest.

Habitat: Sumba.

Little seems to have been written about this cockatoo, but fortunately I can remedy this deficiency to a certain extent as I possess three of these birds.

A cock I have had for several years is now with a hen Lesser Sulphur-crested lent to me by a friend for breeding purposes. She is now sitting but whether the eggs will be fertile I don't know. On arrival she was very tame with me but disliked the cock Citron-crest, whom she chased about all over the aviary. She then alternated between encouraging the cock and scornfully spurning his advances. Now that she is sitting she furiously attacks me if I go to feed them when she happens to be off the nest—but of course such bad temper is usually a good sign when one is trying to breed the larger members of the parrot family.

My other two consist of one, which was sent as a hen, but turned out to be a cock, and a true hen picked up quite by chance through an advertisement. When 1 put the hen in the cock's aviary, I thought they might scrap a bit at first, but not a bit of it; they were overjoyed with each other and I have seldom seen a more genuine case of love at first sight. In no time at all they were sitting side-by-side preening each other's crests and back feathers—the chief sign of affection between cockatoos.

I doubt if they would learn to say more than a few words, and, like most cockatoos, they have extremely harsh voices, but I am certain that a tame specimen would be most affectionate towards its owner, which is the chief recommendation for a pet bird.

Their feeding, housing and general management should be the same as for Leadbeater's Cockatoo, but, unlike the latter, I think they would, as I have said, prove one of the nicest of the cockatoos to keep as a pet.

The species has recently been bred for the first time in confinement in this country.

Ducorp's Cockatoo (Ducorpsius ducorpsi)

This rare cockatoo comes from the Solomon Islands. It is white with a short crest, orange at the base.

It is 13 inches long, and requires the same diet as the Slender-billed.

Funereal Cockatoo

See Black Cockatoos.

Gang-Gang Cockatoo (Callocorydon fitnbriatus)

The Gang-Gang is a quaint and. amusing bird, utterly unlike any of the other cockatoos in appearance, and with a crest that resembles nothing so much as a smart feathered toque!

The general colour is slate-grey, the feathers being bordered with a much paler grey, and the nights and tail are dark grey. On the lower abdomen some of the feathers have white and orange-red bars. The head is scarlet and is adorned with a short erectile crest of soft curly scarlet feathers, whose shape and texture are quite unlike the crest feathers of most cockatoos. The bill is horn-grey.

In the female the upper surface is more boldly marked, and the breast and abdomen are barred with greenish-white and a rather dull shade of orange. The head and crest are grey.

Length: about 14 inches.

Distribution: New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania.

N. W. Cayley says:

It has many quaint habits, different entirely from other cockatoos. For example, it delights to congregate in small parties (family groups most likely) close together on the topmost branch of a tall tree, and lazily preen one another's feathers. I have seen a bird lying along a branch with its wings spread, while its neighbors went carefully over its feathers as if seeking vermin in monkey-like fashion. All its actions are droll and are generally accompanied by its wheezy notes. Another peculiar habit is for a party to take flight without any discernible cause, wheel and twist in all directions as if playing a game, or as an old bushman of my acquaintance once remarked—as if they had a touch of the sun—then settle again, often in the same tree, and either commence feeding or preening as if nothing had interrupted the proceeding.

The same writer also tells the following rather pathetic story, which, however, had a happy ending: "One my father possessed when I was a boy was taught to say 'Poor Cocky has one eye'. It had been shot and wounded and lost an eye. When brought to him it was in a very sorry state; but lived for many years a cherished family pet."

The Gang-Gang will become very tame and affectionate to its owner and will sometimes learn to say a few words, but it has a peculiarly excruciating natural cry including a loud screeching "Ky-or-ark!" which is excessively painful to the human ear, particularly in a sitting room.

It is therefore probably best kept outdoors in an aviary. Pairs are extremely devoted to each other and will delight their owner by their quaint and amusing ways. Moreover they are perfectly hardy and quite willing to go to nest under suitable conditions. They were, I believe, first bred in France by Madame Lecallier and subsequently in this country by the late Duke of Bedford. He also kept them successfully at liberty and they went to nest in an old hollow tree. All the eggs, however, were infertile as the cock had only one leg, a disability which usually renders parrot-like birds useless for breeding purposes, although a finch with one severely damaged leg is often quite capable of fertilizing eggs.

Gang-Gang Cockatoos have one great disadvantage, namely that they are terribly prone to the vice of feather-plucking—to a far greater degree than any other bird I know. I once sent a young pair in absolutely perfect condition to a friend in Ireland and by the time they arrived they were both as naked as plucked chickens, having apparently got bored during the journey and wiled away the time by denuding themselves of every feather! For this reason, whether kept in cage or aviary, it is of more than usual importance that they should always have something to occupy them, such as empty cotton-reels and fresh branches to whittle away at and chew up.

The late Duke of Bedford, who had so much experience with these cockatoos, gave the following advice with regard to their feeding: "The food should consist of one part canary, one part millet, one part oats and one part peanuts, with any fruit or raw vegetables (other than potato and parsley) that the birds will eat. A fresh turf is also appreciated. On no account should hemp or sunflower seed be given to captive Gang-Gangs as it induces liver disease and feather-plucking."

Goffin's Cockatoo (Ducorpsius goffini)

Very like Ducorp's Cockatoo, with its white plumage and short crest, orange at the base, this rare species can be distinguished from it by the tinge of red on the cheeks.

Total length: 12-5 inches.

Habitat: Tenimber Islands.

It requires the same diet as the Slender-billed Cockatoo.

Greater  Sulphur-Crested   Cockatoo (Kakatce galeritd)

This bird is chiefly remarkable for the stupendous age to which it will live, at any rate in confinement, so that often the same bird will be passed down to generation after generation of the same family.

A hundred years is by no means unprecedented, and there is what I believe to be a perfectly authentic record of one which lived to the staggering age of between 130 and 140 years—138, I believe, to be exact. So if you possess one of these cockatoos you are most unlikely to have to mourn the loss of a delightful pet—in fact the bird is far more likely to have to mourn the loss of its delightful owner!

It is a large and imposing white bird about 20 inches in length; with the crest, inner webs of the primary and secondary quills, and under surface of the tail, sulphury-yellow. The bill is black, and, in the male, the eye is practically black; the only difference in the sexes being that the female's eye is said to be lighter.

The Greater Sulphur-crested is one of the commonest of the Australian cockatoos despite continual and, I must say, understandable persecution by Australian farmers, to whose crops vast flocks of these birds do incalculable damage. I believe the usual means adopted for their destruction includes the scattering of poisoned grain and the poisoning of the water at their regular drinking places. While one naturally sympathizes with the farmers, one cannot but deplore the many rare, beautiful and often harmless species, the loss of whose lives such wholesale methods of destruction must inevitably entail.

For a glimpse of the life of this cockatoo in a wild state, I cannot do better than quote the following extract from Neville W. Cayley's excellent book Australian Parrots:

Although its normal food consists of seeds and roots of various kinds, it is a great pest, causing considerable damage to newly-planted or growing crops; so a merciless warfare is constantly waged by farmers and agriculturists against it. A flock numbering many hundreds will settle on a newly-planted paddock or standing crop—only after the scouts sent in advance have reported everything clear —and in a remarkably short space of time will absolutely destroy the whole field. So wary and cunning are these birds that it is difficult to get within gun-range. When feasting, sentinels mount guard on the tops of high trees growing within sight and hearing of the raiders, and warn them with shrill discordant cries on the approach of danger. These sentinels are constantly relieved. It is only possible to get a shot at them by keeping well hidden amongst the crop and waiting for the birds to arrive. Scarecrows are useless. These birds are far too cunning to be misled by such devices. 1 remember seeing a scarecrow, in a field of ripening maize, used by a sentinel as an observation post. Apparently they know the difference between a gun and a stick.

Though destructive, these birds are a striking and beautiful feature of the country-side as they wend their way in labored noisy flight, their white plumage contrasting with the dark green background of a timber-clad mountain range, or when resting among the tree-tops, or scattered in flocks over a plain digging for roots or bulbs.

These cockatoos are also said to congregate in vast breeding flocks on the banks of the Murray River, making use of holes in its precipitous cliff-like sides as nesting sites.

The Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo makes a delightful and most affectionate pet, and some specimens will even allow complete strangers to fondle them with impunity—a liberty which one takes at one's peril with the majority of tame cockatoos and parrots. In addition to its docility I should say that, of all the cockatoos, this bird is probably the best talker.

There are of course exceptions to every rule, and tame as they usually are, I can well remember one, which was a positive fiend incarnate! When I was a very small boy I hankered after a cockatoo and, as it happened, a specimen of this species was for sale in a small local pet shop and moreover could be had on approval. It duly arrived and at first showed no signs of its diabolical disposition. It seemed anxious to be let out of its cage so the door was opened and out it came. It then climbed laboriously down one of the legs of the table on which its cage stood and thus reached the floor. The room was our day nursery, the floor of which was covered with rather shiny cork linoleum, and present were the younger of my two sisters, myself and our governess. For a moment or two the awful bird slithered delightedly about on the linoleum, and then made a sudden rush at our governess's ankles, which it succeeded in nipping. With considerable presence of mind she jumped on to a chair and pulled us children up beside her, hotly pursued by the cockatoo, which accompanied its approach by a blood-curdling travesty of human laughter. At this dramatic moment my mother opened the nursery door, thus mercifully diverting the cockatoo's attention from us. Help was summoned in the form of our coachman, who, having just been trained as a chauffeur (the year was about 1910) was wearing his thick leather driving gauntlets, and so was able to recapture the creature and put it back in its cage— and he subsequently returned it with many thanks to the shop whence it came!
Seeing what amiable birds Greater Sulphur-crests usually are, I feel it is perhaps rather unfair to have related this incident, but I couldn't resist doing so because it was extremely funny—at any rate in retrospect! This anecdote, however, should on no account put anyone off keeping the species, as the bird was entirely exceptional and usually this is one of the nicest of all cockatoos to have as a pet.

Its cage must naturally be the largest sized parrot-cage obtainable, and its affectionate disposition should surely be enough to ensure that its owner lets it out as often as possible to sit on his shoulder or climb about on its cage.

Greater Sulphur-crests are quite willing to breed in an aviary of sufficient size and strength, but they are seldom given the chance to do so, partly no doubt because the erection of such a structure is a matter of considerable expense, and partly because people tend to think of cockatoos mainly as pets rather than as aviary birds.

They were apparently bred in Germany as long ago as the eighteen-eighties, and in this country they have I believe been bred at liberty at both Lilford and Paignton. Strangely enough there are at least two records—one in confinement in Australia, and the other at liberty at Lilford—of this cockatoo rearing hybrids when mated to a Roseate, a cross one would hardly expect, seeing the difference in their size, and the fact that, as cockatoos go, they are not closely related species. They must have been curious-looking and, I should imagine, not very beautiful hybrids.

Although they are usually caged and kept at a living-room temperature, Greater Sulphur-crests are among the hardiest and toughest members of the cockatoo family and do not require any artificial heat in winter, and it is particularly undesirable to keep them in an overheated room.

They require the usual Cockatoo diet.

Leadbeater's Cockatoo (Loppochroa leadbeateri)

Among the cockatoos, I would certainly award the palm for beauty, though not perhaps for brains, to this lovely creature. By that I do not mean that it is actually stupid; indeed it makes a delightful aviary bird; but in a cage it usually proves somewhat wild and intractable and if it learns to talk at all, seldom says more than a few words in a rather squeaky voice.

The male has the back, wings and. tail snow-white. The inner webs of the primary and secondary quills and inner tail feathers are rose-red. The sides of the face, back of the neck, chin, breast, sides of the body and under wing-coverts are rosy pink. The base of the forehead is a darkish rose-red. The large and handsome crest, which when fully extended forms almost a complete semi-circle, is white with three bands of color, the lower and upper ones red, with a yellow one between them. The iris of the eye is almost black.

The female resembles the male except that the iris of the eye is brownish-hazel.

Length: rather over 14 inches.

Young birds are very beautiful and have exceptionally large and well-developed crests, even when first fledged.

When roused, Lead beaters have a particularly excruciating voice and this again makes them more suitable for aviary than cage life. If you have a pair it is well worth giving them an aviary as they look delightful and are, in addition, very ready to breed, if kept under suitable conditions—more so, perhaps, than any other cockatoo with the possible exception of the Roseate.

It is curious to think that this beautiful and nowadays very well known cockatoo was only discovered so comparatively short a time ago as 1830 and was described and named by Vigors the following year. The reason for its late discovery is, no doubt, that it is not an inhabitant of the coastal regions of Australia, and the first voyagers to that continent did not penetrate far inland.

Sir Thomas Mitchell apparently much preferred this bird to its habitat, for in 1838 he wrote: "Few birds more enliven the monotonous hues of the Australian forests than this beautiful species whose pink-colored wings and glowing crest might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region." I should perhaps add that "pink-colored wings" presumably refers to their under surfaces, which are only visible in flight.

In its native land this cockatoo is also known by the very odd name of Wee Juggler, and also as Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, presumably after the Sir Thomas Mitchell mentioned above.

The famous naturalist, John Gould, wrote of Lead beaters: "This beautiful species of cockatoo enjoys a wide range over the southern portions of the Australian continent, it never approaches very near the sea, but evinces a decided preference for the belts of lofty gums and scrubs clothing the sides of the rivers of the interior of the country." He goes on to say, "Its note is more plaintive than that of C. galerita, and does not partake of the harsh grating sound peculiar to that species."

Why Gould should have described the excruciating voice of this bird as "plaintive"—an adjective frequently used to describe such pleasant sounds as the cooing of doves and the sweet piping notes of bullfinches—I simply cannot imagine! However, it is far more accurately described in Tavistock's Parrots and Parrot-like Birds where he says: "Its voice is exceedingly unpleasant, a loud, quavering scream uttered in a harassed tone, and when frightened or angry it emits a truly hideous din." I do think, though, that the very great beauty of these cockatoos makes up for any vocal shortcomings, particularly if they are kept as aviary birds.

Their food in a wild state is said to consist chiefly of various seeds, berries, roots and bulbs, and they apparently perform a useful service by eating the seeds of a small wild melon, which is an inland weed-pest in Australia.

Their favorite nesting site would appear to be a cavity in a decaying branch of the blue gum or eucalyptus tree, and the chosen hole may be as much as 60 feet above ground level.

I have often noticed that various of the larger psittacoses birds will occasionally carry small stones about, so I think it is of interest to note that one naturalist has recorded finding a layer of pebbles several inches deep in the nest of one of these cockatoos, and as these were directly beneath the collection of debris and decayed wood upon which they normally lay their eggs, one wonders if they were placed there to act as a sort of damp-course to keep the nesting chamber sweet and clean and well-ventilated during the rearing of the brood.

Most Leadbeaters are extremely destructive to any exposed woodwork in an aviary and many manage to bite through ordinary half-inch mesh netting, but the strongest gauge inch mesh will usually contain them.

If a cockatoo of this species is kept in a cage it should be as large a one as possible, and although the perch must be of extremely hard wood the bird should frequently be given something—an empty cotton-reel is very suitable—to chew up, as this provides occupation and helps to keep its beak in order. Although cockatoos do often seem point-lessly destructive, I think a good deal of it is done as necessary beak exercise.

How willing they are to reproduce their kind in captivity is strikingly shown by the recorded example of a pair whose home was a small ramshackle chicken run in Scotland, and who only lost their brood through their being destroyed by rats when on the point of fledging. So if any of my readers should possess a true pair of these cockatoos, it will be seen how well worth while it is to give them an aviary, and what a waste to keep them in a cage.

Like most cockatoos, Lead beaters are extremely hardy, and need no more protection than do domestic poultry in winter—that is to say a wire run (the larger the better) and a shelter which need not be elaborate, but must be dry, in which they can take refuge from strong winds and heavy rain.

I say heavy rain particularly because there is nothing they revel in more than a rain bath in a light summer shower, and consequently they should never be kept in one of those entirely covered-in aviaries. Part at least of the roof of the flight should be open to the sky so that their plumage can be rained upon and thereby derive great benefit. Perhaps fully to appreciate the beauty of these cockatoos one must see them in an aviary during a light shower of summer rain. This causes them ecstatic pleasure and they hang from the roof of the flight with their crests raised in excitement and their great wings fully spread displaying the lovely rosy flush on their under surface. Seen thus they resemble nothing so much as huge butterflies.

Because of their exotic appearance and the fact that they come from a hot climate people are still apt to suppose that Lead beaters, and indeed cockatoos in general, should be treated as hothouse flowers and kept perpetually in a warm temperature, whereas in actual fact nothing suits them better than plenty of fresh air and exercise.

I have never bred this cockatoo myself, but have just obtained a very promising young pair. I had what appeared to be a very fine pair before the war, but the cock was quite useless as a breeder. He had apparently never been taught the Facts of Life, for whenever the hen crouched on the perch, obviously inviting him to pair with her, he merely regarded her with a puzzled expression, and then helpfully suggested: "Cocky want a cup of tea?"—his sole accomplishment in the talking line!

Lead beaters should be given a wooden nest-box, the dimensions of which should be about 1 foot square by 4 feet deep, with a layer of decayed wood about 5 inches deep at the bottom. The box should be hung up in the flight under overhead cover and the filling should perhaps be decaying, rather than decayed, wood, as if it is too soft the hen is apt to reduce it to the consistency of powder and in this the eggs are liable to become buried.

To a varying degree all cockatoos are destructive and it is sometimes necessary to cover the entire box with sheet zinc or tin on the outside or at any rate to nail a sheet of zinc on the front, with a hole cut in it to correspond with the entrance hole, in order to prevent the latter becoming unduly enlarged.

The basis of almost all cockatoo foods should be sunflower seed, and I feed all mine on sunflower and monkey-nuts, with a little canary, groats and wheat, and a mere sprinkling of hemp every other day, as too much is apt to be overheating and cause feather-plucking. When they have young in the nest to feed, however, hemp can be given daily, and the amount considerably increased as it is a valuable rearing food. At this time I also give mine each day a fairly large cube of stale bread previously soaked in milk to which sugar dissolved in hot water has been added, just enough to sweeten it.

Lesser Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo (Kakatce sulphurea)

This charming little cockatoo is really just a smaller edition of its considerably larger relative, the Greater Sulphur-crested.

The male is white with a distinct suffusion of very pale yellow on the breast, and a yellow patch on the cheeks. The under surfaces of the quills and tail are also tinged with yellow. The long pointed crest is lemon yellow, and both the bill and the iris of the eye are almost black.

The female resembles the male, but they are easy birds to sex as the iris of the hen's eye is reddish-brown.

Length: between 12 and 13 inches.

Distribution: Celebes, Buton, and Togian Islands.

The Lesser Sulphur-crested becomes very tame and affectionate to its owner, and will learn to talk a little. It is extremely active and if kept in a cage must be given plenty to occupy it and must be frequently let out to climb about on its cage and take plenty of exercise.

Being very hardy, it makes an ideal aviary bird and one that is not difficult to breed. I have a tame hen mated to a cock Citron-crest and she is incubating a clutch of eggs as I write.

The Lesser Sulphur-crested was successfully bred by Mr. M. T. Allen in the year 1924, and he gave an interesting account of this event in the Avicultural Magazine in which he mentions "the ferocity of the parents", which is typical of the larger parrot-like birds when they are breeding. He did, however, manage to look in the nest-box when the young were about eight weeks old, and "found that they were very bulky, had well-developed crests, but no feathers otherwise, and only a little nestling down", and he adds that "the beaks were white, or rather a light horn-color". He noted that both sexes shared in the incubation of the eggs, the cock sitting mostly during the day. This, of course, is typical of cockatoos, but not of parrots, among which only the hen incubates. He mentions that, as extras, he gave the parents sultanas and green wheat in the ear, both of which they relished, and also, rather surprisingly, "a large number of pea pods, which seem to suit them". I must say I should have stretched a point and given them the peas as well!

Actually I should imagine that, like Roseate Cockatoos, they would rear perfectly good young ones on their normal diet, with the amount of hemp, green-foods and fruit (if they will eat it) increased, and a daily supply of sweetened bread and milk—the latter being one of the most valuable and nutritious of all rearing foods. It is perhaps rather misleading to say bread and milk as this implies the sort of thing one was given in a bowl as a child when one was ill. What I do is to dissolve a little sugar in a small quantity of hot water, and add this to the milk. I then cut cubes of fairly stale bread (brown or white) and soak it in the milk, removing it before it becomes entirely saturated and drops to pieces. Done like this it is very much easier to give, and I think the birds themselves prefer it as they can pick it up and hold it in their claws.

The Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo's diet should be the same as that of its larger relative.

Palm Cockatoo (Microglossus aterrimus)

The Palm or Great Black Cockatoo is quite the most remarkable looking member of the whole cockatoo family, and despite its imposing size there is something irresistibly comical about its appearance. For one thing, it can blush! What one might call its face—the area between the beak and the eye—is of bare pink skin, which reacts to its emotions in a very human fashion; flushing deep rosy pink with excitement or anger, and even turning bluish with cold!

Except for this pink face area the bird is entirely black, with a noticeably large head for the size of its body; a huge black bill; and an impressive backward-pointing crest, composed of very long, narrow, lanceolate feathers which can hardly fail to remind one of the enormous feather- or osprey-trimmed women's hats which were so fashionable about the year 1911.

Total length: nearly 30 inches.

The female is rather smaller, with a less massive head and a more slender figure, and a less extensive area of bare pink skin on the face.

In Australia they inhabit chiefly the northern part of Cape York Peninsula, northern Queensland, and are also found in New Guinea and the Papuan and Aru Islands.

One of the earliest people to write about this bird in its native haunts says that his attention was first drawn to it by-its comical antics in the trees. He looked up, much surprised, as it stooped towards him and opened its bill, "the deep red color of its naked cheeks and the bristled plumage testifying to the bird's anger at the intrusion of a white stranger in its haunts. ..."

This, written over a hundred years ago, provides rather interesting evidence that the bird's almost exclusively human ability to "blush" was one of the first things that struck its original discoverers.

These birds nest in hollows in trees, and apparently line their nests with quite a deep layer of criss-crossed twigs, which is a wise precaution to drain away the water in heavy rains, particularly if the tree stump is open at the top, as would often appear to be the case. The clutch seems to consist sometimes of only one, and, at most, of two eggs.

The Palm Cockatoo has a tremendously powerful beak, so it is a comfort to know that it makes a very gentle pet. A Dr. D'Ombrain wrote the following tribute to a tame specimen in his possession: "The Palm Cockatoo, in spite of the suggestion of the fearsome bite it would inflict if handled, is one of the most gentle and kindly dispositioned birds I have ever had. It seems quite impossible to make it bite in the usual sense of the word [Author's note: I should not like to try this experiment!] When annoyed it merely uses its long fine-pointed hooked upper mandible to scratch one....”

Roseate Cockatoo (Eolophus roseicapillus)

This well-known bird is the commonest as well as one of the most beautiful of the cockatoos.

The male has the back, wings and. tail silvery grey, the flight feathers being of a darker shade. The underparts are a deep rose pink and the short, compact, erectile crest is white faintly suffused with pink. The feet and legs are blackish and the bill whitish. The iris of the eye is so dark as to make the whole eye appear as black as a boot button.

It is very easy to sex by the colour of the iris of the eye, which in the female is pinkish-hazel. The only difference in the plumage, however, is that the hen's crest has a noticeably deeper pink suffusion.

Length: just over 14 inches.

Habitat: Australia.

These cockatoos are known in their native land as Galahs, and although they feed on the ground where they tend to keep down certain noxious weed pests by eating their seeds, they also raid the standing grain crops in vast numbers and are consequently held in detestation by Australian farmers. Nor are they easy to shoot, as one bird, which is periodically replaced by another, keeps watch on a tree while the others feed and give the alarm at anyone's approach. As a last resort, 1 believe the farmers poison the water holes at which they congregate to drink morning and evening. Unfortunately, however, the same water hole in a rather arid country like Australia is certain to be used by other birds, and one can hardly bear to contemplate the slaughter that must result among rare and beautiful species, many of which may be actual friends to agriculture.

I never think, however, that one should be too down on the farmers, as they certainly have a fearful problem to face, and the vast hordes in which these birds are, or at any rate were, found in Australia can be gauged by the fact that a particularly large flock has been known to bring the telephone wires to the ground, torn from the insulators by the weight of the birds sitting on and clinging to them.

The Roseate seems to have been discovered rather late, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, but this would be accounted for by the fact that it is essentially a lowland inland bird, frequenting most of the interior of Australia, but not found near the coast. Consequently it would not have been seen by those who first visited the continent and probably penetrated no further inland than the coastal districts.

Neville W. Cayley, in his book, Australian Parrots, wrote of the Roseate Cockatoo: "The Galah (or Rose-breasted Cockatoo) is essentially a bird of the inland areas. During the winter months it congregates in large flocks, and in pairs in the spring. I have often seen these birds in flocks of many thousands, and gloried in the sight they made when perched in the branches of trees, giving the effect of masses of pink and white blossom, or when on the wing, the alternating flashes of grey and pink, and again as they feed on the plains a living carpet of the same color."

They nest in the hollow limb usually of a gum tree, and have a habit of biting off all the bark in the vicinity of the entrance hole. It has been suggested, quite reasonably I think, that they do this in order to make it too smooth to afford a foothold for iguanas, which prey both on their eggs and young.

Roseates, particularly young birds, make the most delightful and affectionate pets and take quite kindly to cage life, provided that they are frequently let out. Incidentally if one wing of a pet Roseate is kept clipped it can (under its owner's supervision, of course) be allowed to walk about on the lawn, a thing which all Roseates greatly enjoy as they are considerable green-food eaters and will crop the grass and weeds.

The late Duke of Bedford tried many years ago the interesting experiment of keeping a clipped-wing pair at liberty in the central grass courtyard of his home, Woburn Abbey, and as far as I can remember he told me that he provided them with an old decayed tree to climb about in and a sort of dog-kennel on legs to nest in. Walking on the grass and climbing about the tree suited this pair so well that they flourished even to the extent of successfully rearing two young ones.

They have been successfully bred full-winged at complete liberty, and the late Duke in his book, Parrots and Parrot-like Birds, wrote of this species: "Tame Roseate Cockatoos when kept at liberty sometimes develop an odd fondness for mechanical travel. A hen bird, the property of a butcher on Hayling Island, was for some years quite a well-known figure owing to her fondness for riding on motor cars. She would settle on the back of a car and, after enjoying a spin of a mile or two, would fly back to her home. Another hen which I gave to a gentleman in France repaired to the local railway station and spent her time riding on the engine until her plumage was blackened with smoke."

To return to Roseates as cage birds, it must be owned that their voices are not nearly as beautiful as their plumage. When they really let fly these can be absolutely shattering, and in an aviary they are good watchdogs, as they will raise their wings and crests and start this fearful shindy at the approach of anyone or anything unfamiliar to them and which they instantly treat as a potential enemy. In a cage, however, provided they are not frightened or alarmed, their noisy fits only come upon them morning and evening and are a very good sign as they are simply due to health and natural exuberance. These can of course annoy very close neighbors, and therefore to flat-dwellers I would certainly recommend a rather quieter bird as a pet.

Their needs in a cage are really exactly the same as those of a Grey or an Amazon Parrot, except that in the case of

Roseates it is more than ever necessary to keep them supplied with something—pieces of wood, old cotton-reels, etc.—to bite up, for they are such tremendous whittlers, as anyone who has kept them in an aviary with unprotected woodwork will know to his cost! Nor do I think this destructiveness is simply mischievous on their part. I feel sure it is beneficial to their health, and whenever possible I try and give my pair a tree branch with the bark still on it in their aviary. This keeps them happily occupied for a long time, and they particularly enjoy the preliminary task of completely stripping it of every vestige of bark, after which they spend hours laboriously whittling away the branch itself until nothing remains but a large pile of splinters and two satisfied-looking cockatoos!

In Greene's Parrots in Captivity, written about the end of the last century, there is a rather entertaining account of some young Roseate Cockatoos reared by a bantam, from which I give the following extract:

"My young cockatoos were very slow of growth, and required assistance in feeding until quite three months old, for although they would pick up stray bits of food, yet they greatly preferred to have it from the fingers of their owner. The absurdity of the performance between their foster-mother and themselves was highly amusing, for the bantam, who nursed them tenderly, would excite their hunger by picking up morsels of food and calling loudly to her adopted children, they immediately endeavoured to thrust their large beaks into her mouth, at which proceeding she would appear greatly astonished, and looking inquiringly first at one and then at the other big-headed baby, she would take up the fallen scrap and go through the performance again with similar results. The little black hen eventually abandoned all attempts to feed her strange children, but she was very much attached to them, and a quaint trio they looked when basking together in the sunshine, the hen dusting herself, and the youngsters climbing about her body, in the vain endeavor to escape a shower of grit with which they were every now and then assailed. The early plumage of these birds was less brilliant than that of the adult, and the breast was, moreover, largely mottled with grey, but at twelve months old there was nothing by which to distinguish them from birds four times their age."

To the foregoing interesting account we can only add that it seems to us a pity that so much care and attention, both on the part of the human foster-father, and the bantam hen foster-mother were wasted upon such unworthy subjects; had they been Goffins, indeed, or even Leadbeaters, but Rosy Cockatoos! We candidly confess we should not have taken the trouble.

I confess the last part of the final paragraph rather shocks me for I never think one should allow familiarity with any thing of beauty to breed contempt. Yet the infinite contempt of Dr. Greene's ". . . but a Rosy Cockatoo! We candidly confess we should not have taken the trouble", clearly shows that with him this was the case. Of course one has to take into consideration the fact that he was writing round about seventy years ago when common birds such as Roseate Cockatoos—particularly if they were considered a pest in their own country—were trapped and exported abroad in great numbers and often under the most appalling conditions. Even so, I think Dr. Greene should have shown greater appreciation of such a beautiful and in many ways charming bird as the Roseate Cockatoo—"dirt cheap" as no doubt they were at the time when he was writing.

Nowadays they are appreciated at their proper worth, and I never have any difficulty in disposing of the two or three young ones my breeding pair rear each season. Such young aviary-bred Roseates are much sought after as they are so easily tamed and if properly treated make such delightful pets.

The parents go through the strangest antics when courting, preening each other's crests and face feathers and periodically making a curious rapid clicking noise with their beaks.

An ordinary wooden nest-box is quickly reduced to a heap of splinters unless it is completely covered with sheet zinc or tin, so it is quite useless to give them an unprotected box.

As with cockatoos in general, both sexes take it in turn to incubate the eggs and Roseates usually make excellent parents. Newly-fledged young ones resemble their parents but have slightly smaller crests and a considerable admixture of grey among the pink feathers of the breast. The crest also has a greater suffusion of pink than that of an adult and I am inclined to think that those with the least amount of pink in their crests are young cocks. The eye test does not apply when they are young as the color of the irides at that time is similar in both sexes.

Roseates feed their young ones on the staple diet of sunflower and monkey-nuts with a little canary and considerably more hemp than they would have out of the breeding season. At this time I also give them daily a fairly large cube of stale bread previously soaked in sweetened milk, which is a valuable rearing food for any bird that will take it.

Of all cockatoos, Roseates are perhaps the greatest green-food eaters, and besides spinach and seakale beet they are very fond of grass and particularly so of flowering clover and dandelions. In fact nothing gives them greater pleasure than a large handful of these as well as shepherd's purse, groundsel and chickweed, to which may also be added plantain heads. On the other hand they are not great fruit eaters, although some will take a little ripe sweet apple. I have found that they usually ignore elderberries of which many members of the parrot family are so fond.

In an aviary it is a nuisance to keep on finding that they have chewed up all their perches and are reduced to clinging on to the wire-netting, and this continually happens if any of the softer woods are used for their perches. In fact I have found that there is only one wood that they are incapable of destroying and that is teak. Consequently I give them two main perches made of teak—one in the shelter and one in the flight—and periodically give them a branch of a tree to whittle and exercise their beaks upon.

It is most important for the sake of the bird's plumage that a caged Roseate should either be periodically put outside, cage and all, in a light shower of rain or else be sprayed once or twice a week with a fine misty spray of rain-water. Few birds revel more in a shower of rain than a pair of Roseates housed in an outdoor aviary. They make a terrific din and go quite wild with excitement as they clamber about hanging upside down from the wire-netting roof of their flight, continually putting their crests up and down and opening and closing their wings so as to be sure that the rain penetrates to every part of their plumage. For this reason their aviary flight should never be entirely boarded over. Personally I do not like these covered-in aviaries for birds of any kind, and they are only tolerable for birds that prefer to take their bath in a shallow water vessel and consequently do not miss a shower of rain so much.

My pair of Roseate Cockatoos occupy actually the same aviary in which the hen herself was bred. She and her husband have reared many excellent young ones over a period  of years,  but as they get  older  I find  they tend now and then to miss a breeding season altogether. Their aviary is a simple structure of a metal framework covered with stout inch mesh wire-netting and measuring overall about 15 feet long by 5 feet by 7 feet high, the north-facing end, and the adjoining sides and roof to about one-third of the entire length of the aviary being boarded over outside the wire-netting, to form an open-fronted shelter. Much to the average layman* s astonishment they live in this aviary both summer and winter without any artificial heat and are always in the most perfect health and condition—far more so, indeed, than such caged specimens as may have the misfortune to be kept in overheated sitting-rooms, although of course there is nothing wrong with a normal sitting-room temperature for a bird.

Before concluding this account of Roseate Cockatoos, I think it may be of interest to mention that there is a rare but very beautiful "sport" of this species known as the White Roseate. Those parts of the bird's plumage that are grey in the normal form are snow-white in the sport, and either the rose-pink areas are deeper or the contrast with the pure white makes them appear so.

In any case this sport or variety is most beautiful and it is a thousand pities that it proved impossible to establish the strain, despite the combined efforts of the late Duke of Bedford and myself, although he did get as far as breeding White-bred young ones—but no further. The male I once had, mated to a normal-colored female, was quite hopeless, as he simply ate his wife's eggs as soon as she had laid them.

It is possible that this very lovely white mutation exists and is being given every chance to breed in Australian aviaries—at any rate I hope so.

Unfortunately the great difficulty about getting parrot and cockatoo color mutations established is that for some unexplained reason the mutants themselves so often prove impossible to breed, from—either (as in the case of the White Roseate) eating their eggs, or else smashing them, or refusing to pair with their hens, or if they do, proving sterile.

The Roseate has been crossed with both the Greater and the Lesser Sulphur-crested. Cockatoo and one can imagine more or less what the resultant hybrids may have looked like, for both parents, although very differently colored, were at least cockatoos. Really amazing, however, was the laying and partial incubating of a clutch of fertile eggs by a hen Roseate Cockatoo mated to a cock Rosella Parakeet! True, both have hooked beaks, but there the resemblance ends and genetically they are miles apart. I have often tried to imagine what the hybrids would have looked like but have failed to form any mental picture whatever. The reason the eggs were never hatched was because the hen Roseate naturally expected her husband (as male cockatoos do) to share with her the task of incubating the eggs, while the cock Rosella, equally naturally, expected his wife to do all the incubating herself. As a result the Roseate sat somewhat erratically and unfortunately died during the period of incubation, but the eggs had been sat on long enough to prove that they were fertile.

Salmon-Crested Cockatoo (Kakatoe moluccensis)

This is a large bird about the same size as the Greater Sulphur-crested, and certainly one of the most beautiful of the cockatoo family.

The male is white with a tinge of salmon-pink, chiefly on the breast. The crest, which is long and broad, has some of the central feathers deep salmon-pink, almost red. The under surfaces of the tail and quills are tinged with a yellowish-pink hue. The eye is black; and the bill practically black.

The female only differs from the male in having the iris of the eye darkish brown.

Length: 20 inches.

Distribution: Ceram and Amboina.

This large and handsome cockatoo is most often seen in zoos, but anyone fortunate enough to obtain a true pair would find them extremely hardy when housed in an outdoor aviary and might well breed from them. Their powerful beaks, however, would have to be taken into consideration and consequently the aviary would have to be constructed of the strongest possible materials.

A single bird in a cage—which of course must be of the largest possible size—makes a most attractive and affectionate pet, with its quaint, rather solemn appearance and slow deliberate movements. Moreover it is one of the best talkers among the cockatoos and its docility is another point in its favor.

There is usually a fly in the ointment, however, and in this case it is the formidable voice (even by cockatoo standards) possessed by this otherwise delightful bird.

It needs the same feeding and treatment as other cockatoos.

Slender-Billed Cockatoo (Licmetis teniurostris)

A good description of this bird's qualities was given by the late Duke of Bedford when he referred to "its absurd amiability when tamed, and a fair capacity for learning to talk".

It is a white bird with a sulphury yellow tinge on the under surface of the tail. The feathers of the head, throat, neck and upper part of the breast are pink at the base, while the forehead and a small area immediately behind and in front of the eye are red. The eye itself is in the upper part of a more or less circular area of bare blue skin. The bill is whitish horn-color with a long and slender upper mandible. The iris of the eye is dark brown.

Length: nearly 18 inches.

Distribution: The inland areas of eastern, southern and northwestern Australia, where it is known as the Corella.

The female is described as resembling the male, although slightly smaller.

It is said to feed mainly on a quite uncockatoo-like diet of roots and bulbs and a special kind of small yam, and as these all have to be dug out of the earth it is easy to see why it has been provided with such a curiously-shaped beak. This naturally wears away through constant digging, but its growth keeps pace with the wear and tear, and it is recorded of an elderly pet specimen that in attempting to lever up a brick in a drain, it split its upper mandible almost from tip to base. The bird's owner mended the split as best he could and in a mere matter of three weeks the beak had grown to such an extent that the split portion could be discarded.

However, these cockatoos also feed on seeds and grain, causing considerable havoc in newly planted fields of the latter, doubtless chiefly by digging up the grain when it is in the process of germination.

One cause of the decrease of its numbers in Australia is said to be its vast popularity there as a cage bird, where it has the reputation of being the best talker of all that country's cockatoos. It will therefore be seen that anyone lucky enough to obtain one of these cockatoos may—provided it is not too old and set in its ways—find himself with a charming, teachable and very affectionate pet, whose slightly grotesque appearance (owing to the shape of its beak) and whose far from musical voice, are fully compensated by its many virtues.

If kept as an aviary bird, it is quite hardy and would probably breed, although as far as I know this has never been achieved or even attempted, at any rate in this country.

I have never been the fortunate possessor of one of these delightful cockatoos, but if one day I were, and had to keep it in a cage, I should feel rather apprehensive about the abnormally swift growth of its beak. No digging is possible on the hard floor of a parrot-cage, so I should feel inclined to provide the bird as often as I could with a thick square of turf upon which to exercise the normal functions of its beak, as I feel sure this would add greatly to its health and enjoyment of life, and also tend to prevent its beak becoming overgrown.

The diet generally prescribed for these cockatoos seems to consist of canary, millet and oats with monkey-nuts and plenty of raw vegetables and green-foods—excluding, of course, potato and parsley. Hemp for them is apparently anathema, and unless rationed is always a dangerous seed, but I should have thought that a small quantity of the latter and of sunflower might have been permitted, but then, as I say, I have never kept the Slender-billed Cockatoo.

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos

See Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, and Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo.

Triton Cockatoo (Kakatoe triton)

The rarely-imported Triton is very like the Blue-eyed Cockatoo and has a similar patch of naked blue skin surrounding the eye.

Total length: 18 inches.

Habitat: the Papuan Islands.

They Fear No Foe

Three gaudy macaws were wheeling round and round in playful flight, now showing all red on the under surface, then turning all together, as if they were one body, and exhibiting the gorgeous blue, yellow and red of the upper side gleaming in the sunshine; screaming meanwhile as they flew with harsh, discordant cries this gaudy-coloured and noisy bird seems to proclaim aloud that it fears no foe. Its formidable beak protects it from every danger, for no hawk or predatory mammal dares attack a bird so strongly armed. Here the necessity for concealment does not exist and sexual selection has had no check in developing the brightest and most conspicuous colours. If such a bird were not able to defend itself from all foes, its loud cries would attract them, its bright colours direct them to its own destruction. The white cockatoo of Australia is a similar instance. It is equally conspicuous amongst the dark-green foliage by its pure white colour and equally its loud screams proclaim from afar its resting-place, whilst its powerful beak protects it from all enemies excepting man. In the smaller species of parrots the beak is not sufficiently strong to protect them from their enemies, and most of them are coloured green, which makes them very difficult to distinguish amongst the leaves. I have been looking for several minutes at a tree in which were scores of green parrots, making an incessant noise, without being able to distinguish one.

Thomas Belt
from The Naturalist in Nicaragua (published in 1875)

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