E. Maucl Knobel —.4 Pet Cockatoo



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lias not grown at all since I have had him. He is white, with the usual

lemon crest, and if you turn back the feathers of the head and neck

the down feathers underneath are a bright canary yellow. The under

wings and tail are pale lemon colour. The bright yellow patch on the

ear-coverts, so conspicuous in most of the Lesser Sulphur Crests, is

wanting, and there is only a suspicion of very pale lemon colour to mark

the spot. He has black eyes, and is certainly a male bird.


I was told he had come from the Solomon Islands, and had only

been a few days in this country when I bought him. He certainly must

have lived in the engine-room on the boat coming over, or been petted

by men with oily hands, for he was almost black and covered in oil.

I have washed him twice in “ Lux ”, and also rubbed him with flour

and oatmeal, but without much success ; the quills are white, but it

seems almost impossible to get the oil out of the soft, downy feathers,

and I suppose I must possess my soul in patience and wait for him to

moult out into that snow-like whiteness that one wants to see. He is

far and away the most amusing and intelligent bird I have ever had.

He is a perfect clown in the way he plays about and talks and dances

the whole day through. He enters a room as if the whole place belonged

to him, and then pauses to see who he shall go to ; having made up his

mind he then runs straight to that person and pulls himself up to be

nursed. He generally chooses my mother, to whom he is devoted.

He has learnt several words since I have had him, like “ Jackie ”,

“ Pretty Cockatoo ”, “ What you want ? ” “ Hulloa ! ” etc. He and

1 have recently been at a farm in Gloucestershire, when he learnt to

cackle to perfection like a hen after laying an egg. He is never tired of

sitting on a chair in front of a looking-glass, when he kisses and talks

to himself in the most endearing terms. He sometimes does a kind of

skirt dance in the corner of the room—slowly dancing round with wings

outspread, and now and again tapping the floor with his beak, and then

putting the wings forward so as to completely cover the head. I have

never kept a Cockatoo before, so all this is entirely new to me, but

I should like to know if they all go on like this ! He plays just like

a kitten with a screwed up piece of paper, tossing it over his head with his

beak and pulling it back with his foot. He can run at a tremendous

pace, and follows me about like a dog, jumping down the stairs and then



