COCKATOOS. 



143 



The Greater Sulphur-crest is fairly common in the 

 bird-market, where (according to Russ) it commands a 

 price varying from 15s. to 5 ; whether these are lower 

 or higher than our English prices I cannot say. 



When once acclimatised, this Cockatoo is vigorous, 

 and lives to a good age in captivity. With care and 

 attention it can be taught to speak various words, and 

 even short sentences ; but of the many which I have 

 met with, very few get beyond the tiresome word 

 '"Polly," which people will persist in teaching every 

 kind of talking Parrot. 



This bird was bred near Berlin, in a garden, in 1883. 

 The young were fed by their parents chiefly upon white 

 bread and yolk of egg. When being fed they kept up a 

 continuous sound like that produced by rubbing a cork 

 upon a bottle. They left the nesting-hole when eleven 

 weeks old, being then but little smaller than their 

 parents. 



Although owners of these birds always speak of them' 

 as gentle and innocent, I have often observed that 

 directly you approach to scratch their heads they throw 

 their crests forward, open their formidable beaks, and 

 look so menacing that discretion has always seemed to 

 me the better part of valour. 



In my "Foreign Bird-Keeping," Vol. II., p. 31, I 

 published an account of an unusually accomplished 

 specimen of this bird, which belonged to my wife's 

 grandmother ; I see no use in repeating it here. Parrots 

 repeat what they are taught, and a few words or sen- 

 tences which they pick up for themselves; in some 

 instances they acquire a certain comprehension of the 

 meanings attached to their utterances, and therefore 

 astonish their hearers by the appropriateness of their 

 remarks, but in some cases they jumble words together 

 so that they make no sense whatever. 



I remember, when a boy, seeing one of these birds, 

 which had escaped from a cage on the balcony of a 

 neighbour's house, flying high over our garden scream- 

 ing at the top of its voice ; it was soon out of sight, 

 and I believe was never recovered. Specimens pur- 

 posely turned loose in the country have lived for a year 

 or two in freedom, coming down to feed with fowls in 

 the winter-time; but doubtless such conspicuous birds 

 jet gradually shot by keepers and others; perhaps it 

 is just as well for fruit-growers that this should be so. 

 _ This Cockatoo was first exhibited at Regent's Park 

 m 1860, since which time the London Zoological Society 

 has owned a good many dozen examples of the bird ; 

 doubtless, in like manner, it has been freely repre- 

 sented in all other Zoological Gardens; it is very 

 enduring, living to fifty, eighty, and perhaps over 100 

 years.* 



TRITON COCKATOO (Cacatua triton). 

 Closely related to the preceding, but smaller and 

 with the naked orbital skin blue ; beak and feet black ; 

 mdes brown. Female smaller than male, with smaller 

 beak, narrower when seen in profile, and with a shorter 

 terminal hook. Hab., Papuan Islands. 



, J> n . ? aper on the " Birds of North Queensland " 

 (The Ibis, 1900, pp. 642, 643), Messrs Robinson and 

 Laverock regard this as a, mere form of the preceding 

 species, and quote Olive's note on its habits as 



ollows : ' Plentiful, but very shy ; generally in flocks, 

 sometimes in pairs and singly. I have counted 



nearly 200 roosting in the trees close together ; in the 

 morning they separate and go out in small flocks to 

 their feeding-grounds and return to their roostin<r- 

 place after sunset. They nip off all the leaves and 



See The Ibis, 1899, p. 31. 



smaller twigs from the trees on which they roost. Iris 

 brown, feet and' bill black ; bare skin o ! n the face 

 bluish white." 



The authors of the article point out that these 

 northern birds much more closely resemble those of 

 New Guinea (the typical C. triton) than do the South 

 Australian examples, and they point out that Salvadori 

 refers an example collected at Hammond Island, Torres 

 Straits, to C. triton; still, the field-note would have 

 been more satisfactory as applying to the latter species 

 if it had' been made in New Guinea. Dr. Hartert, so 

 far from regarding C. triton as a form of C. galerita, 

 has strongly advocated its separation into three sub- 

 species, on account of their differences in size. On the 

 other hand, Count Salvadori says (The Ibis, 1906, p. 

 128) : "I should say that C. triton is a very variable 

 species as regards dimensions." What earthly good 

 species-splitters expect to do to science by naming all 

 the links between continental and insular forms or all 

 the gradations in size or tint of the same species when 

 occupying a large area, I utterly fail to see. We know 

 that it was a fact recognised by Darwin that " common 

 and widely distributed species vary most"; therefore 

 the commoner and better known a species is, the more 

 are we to be plagued with a multiplicity of names for 

 it, when one name and a statement of the nature of its 

 variability would answer all scientific purposes. 



The London Zoological Society first acquired a speci- 

 men of C. triton in 1860, and various others were placed 

 on exhibition from that date, though mostly on deposit ; 

 the last recorded in the ninth edition of the list was 

 one presented in 1893. 



LESSER SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO (Cacatua sulphurea). 



Considerably smaller than C. galerita, generally 

 yellower in tint, and 1 with a defined yellow patch on 

 the ear-coverts, the wing and tail feathers yellow 

 below ; the feet blackish-grey with black claws ; the 

 iris dark brown in the male, but said to be reddish- 

 brown in the female (as very likely to be the case in 

 C. galerita). Female slightly smaller than male; the 

 beak viewed from above rather shorter and narrower, 

 the terminal hook shorter. Hab., Celebes, Buton, and 

 Togian Islands. 



It is probable that the wild life of this bird greatly 

 resembles that of its larger relative ; it certainly lays 

 two eggs, as shown by Mr. Fraser (P.Z.S., 1865, p. 227), 

 who also pointed out that hens of this and other Cocka- 

 toos were good talkers. 



Dr. Russ speaks of the Lesser Sulphur-crest as becom- 

 ing "easily and quickly tame, exceedingly confiding, 

 never treacherous or snappish ; also vigorous and endur- 

 ing, nevertheless, it only learns to speak certain 

 words." This is exactly the opinion which I have 

 formed of the bird from the examples with which I 

 have come in contact. A neighbour had one for several 

 years which could be heard 1 at intervals of a minute or 

 so throughout the day, "Ma-rie" it never said any- 

 thing else ; but at times it relieved the monotony of its 

 existence by shrieking after the fashion of its kind. I 

 was asked whether I wouldn't like to have the bird 

 (when my neighbour moved), but I declined with 

 thanks; a bird so accomplished seemed, to me dear as 

 a gift. 



LEMON-CRESTED COCKATOO (Cacatua citrino-cristata). 

 White, base of feathers of head, neck, and inner web 

 of flight and tail-feathers sulphur-yellow; crest 

 yellowish-orange; ear-coverts tinged with yellow; 

 naked orbital ring whitish-grey ; beak and feet black 

 irides dark brown. Female not differentiated, but pro- 



