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lie further expressed his opinion that “such an easy-minded bird

ought to breed anywhere." Now I believe it was that last remark

that decided me. I accordingly wrote and said I should be

pleased to give the Cockatoos a trial—they have since given me

not one but many !


About a week later a porter toiled up to the vicarage sad

and weary, bearing a cage of Gargantuan Islanders’ proportions

covered with sacking, in which were the savages. I got them

inside, undid the sacking, and the Solomons in lavender were

revealed to view.


I may as well here say that they had been known in their

past life as Solomon and Rose. I thought the latter name

unsuitable ; and, with a nice regard for Bible history, we re¬

named them Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.


Solomon I found was a gentleman of moderate size, about

the same girth as a small Moluccan Cockatoo, but with a very

red and evil looking eye, suggestive of drink ; on his head he

wears a beautiful sulphur-coloured crest, which he can erect at

pleasure or anger ; on his cheeks he has (although it sounds a

bit Irish) a blush of sulphur colour; the rest of his person is

snowy white with a dash of sulphur under the wings ; strong and

wicked looking feet complete the picture, set off by a beak that

would break bars of iron in sunder. When in full dress, I have

no doubt he will be rather a taking gentleman ; but on arrival

he was quite naked in the part where a City Alderman keeps “ his

corporation,” and his shoulders were so bare that I thought of

making him a coat.


Rose, or the Queen of Sheba as she now is, had a rather

wild and scared look about her, as though, like the immortal

Mrs. Gummidge, she was always on the worrit. She had also a

decidedly undressed appearance about the neck ; in fact she

might have been some ancient duchess on her way to Court: for

she showed a great deal of long and scraggy neck. She too had

had a sulphur crest, but Solomon, apparently not approvin g of

female finery or the order that “ ladies going to Court must wear

feathers,” had partially removed it. This gave her a wild

unearthly look, and, combined with a bold brown eye, gave her

a very rakish appearance. The rest of her person was clothed

in what should have been dazzling white, but which was, to put

it mildly, a bit “ off colour.”


I hope I may be excused if I make a slight extract from

their late owner’s letter : “ Two of our dogs are glad that Rose

and Solomon have departed ; as when the Cockatoos screeched



