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COCKATOO 



COCKBURN 



soldiers during the wars of the 18th century, the 

 white and red being united in the combined army 

 of France and Spain. In 1767 an authoritative 

 regulation was issued that every French soldier 

 should wear a cockade of white stuff; and in 1782 

 cockades were prohibited to all but soldiers. From 

 this time till the Revolution the cockade was an 

 exclusively military badge ; and, both in France 

 and England, ' to mount the cockade ' was synony- 

 mous with becoming a soldier. After the Revolu- 

 tion, the tricolor ribbon took the place of the white 

 cockade. 



In England, after the expulsion of the Stuart 

 family, the white cockade became the distinctive 

 mark of the adherents of the exiled house, in opposi- 

 tion to the orange of Nassau and the black of Han- 

 over ; it is a favourite theme in Jacobite songs. 

 The black cockade, to be seen on the hats of officers' 

 .servants, was unknown in Britain till the accession 

 of the House of Hanover, and was then introduced 

 by George I. from his German dominions. It seems 

 to be understood that the right to use it belongs 

 not only to naval and military officers, but also to 

 the holders of some offices of dignity under the 

 crown, including privy-councillors, officers of state, 

 .supreme judges, &c. , and some would extend it to 

 deputy-lieutenants. The privilege is one of which 

 the law takes no cognisance. See BADGE. 



Cockatoo, a popular name for several genera 

 and species of parrots (Psittaci), which may be 

 associated in a family of Cacatuidee or Plissolo- 

 phinse. Some of them are well known as decora- 

 tive birds. The general characteristics are the 

 tuft on the head, the strong high beak with a 

 notch behind the point, the frequently bright 

 colours of the plumage, the long wings, the 

 loquacious habit. The cockatoos inhabit Aus- 

 tralia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Indian 

 Archipelago. The word which the birds seem to 

 say, and which is curiously represented by the 

 English cockatoo, is said to be Malayan for ' old 

 father,' and to have been taught to the birds by 

 their captors. Of the genus Plissolophus, fifteen 

 Australian and Malayan species are Known e.g. 

 PI. sanguineus, PL molluccensis, PL cristatus. The 

 great palm cockatoo ( Microglossus aterrimus) is 

 the strongest of the parrot tribe, and measures 

 About two feet in length; its colour is mostly 

 black ; its special home is New Guinea. The crest- 

 less Nasiterna, the smallest of all the parrots, 

 also inhabits New Guinea. The black cockatoos 

 ( Calyptorhynchm ) form another important genus 

 in Australia. The cockatoos feed mainly on fruits 

 and seeds, but do not disdain insect larvae. 



Cockatrice, a fabulous monster, often con- 

 founded with the Basilisk (q.v. ), and regarded as 

 possessing similar deadly powers. To the charms 

 of the basilisk it added a dragon's tail, armed with 

 a sting ; and it shared also its power 

 of destroying by a glance, so often 

 referred to in Shakespeare and other 

 early writers. In medieval art the 

 cockatrice is an emblem of sin gener- 

 ally, and the special attribute of St 

 Vitus. The name occurs in the 

 English authorised version of the 

 Old Testament, where the original 

 Hebrew word means evidently 

 ' venomous serpent. ' In Heraldry 

 the cockatrice is represented as a 

 winged monster having the head, body, and feet of 

 fl cock, the tongue barbed, and the tail of a dragon. 

 Cockayne. See COCKNEY. 

 Cockburn, SIR ALEXANDER, judge, was born 

 24th December 1802, studied at Cambridge, was 

 called to the bar in 1829, and soon became distin- 

 guished as a pleader before parliamentary com- 



mittees. In 1847 he became member of parliament 

 for Southampton in the Liberal interest, became 

 Solicitor-general and was knighted in 1850, was 

 made Chief-justice of the Common Pleas in 1856, 

 and Lord Chief -justice in 1859. He was prosecutor 

 in the Palmer case : and among the many famous 

 trials over which he presided were the Wainwright 

 case and Tichborne case. He represented Britain 

 at the Geneva arbitration in the Alabama case. 

 He died 20th November 1880. 



Cockbnrn, ALISON, poetess, was born 8th 

 October 1713, the daughter of Robert Rutherford, 

 laird of Fairnilee, Selkirkshire. In 1731 she married 

 Patrick Cockburn, advocate, and in 1753 was left a 

 widow, with an only son, who predeceased her in 

 1780. She died 23d January 1795, having for sixty 

 years and more been a queen of Edinburgh society : 

 in person she was not unlike Queen Elizabeth. Of 

 her lyrics the best known is the exquisite version of 

 The Flowers of the Forest ( ' I've seen the smiling of 

 Fortune beguiling ' ), commemorating a wave of 

 calamity that swept over Ettrick Forest, and first 

 printed in 1765. Mrs Cockburn in 1777 discerned 

 in Walter Scott ' the most extraordinary genius 

 of a boy ; ' in 1786 she made Burns's acquaintance. 

 See Songstresses of Scotland (vol. i. 1871), and 

 Craig-Brown's History of Selkirkshire ( 1886). 



Cockburn, HENRY, Scottish judge, was born 

 26th October 1779, perhaps at Cockpen, but more 

 probably in the Parliament Close of old Edinburgh. 

 He entered the High School in 1787, and the 

 university in 1793, 'being kept,' in his own words, 

 ' nine years at two dead languages which we did 

 not learn.' Dugald Stewart's lectures, then, 'were 

 like the opening of the heavens,' they 'changed 

 one's whole nature ; ' and through a debating club 

 he became the companion of Jeffrey, Horner, and 

 Brougham, from whom he imbibed Whig opinions, 

 greatly to the annoyance of the hereditary Toryism 

 of his family. He was called to the Scottish bar in 

 1800; and in 1807 his uncle, the all-powerful Lord 

 Melville, gave him an advocate-deputeship a non- 

 political post, from which, on political grounds, he 

 ' had the honour of being dismissed ' in 1810. He 

 rose, however, to share with Jeffrey the leadership 

 of the bar, and with Jeffrey was counsel for three 

 prisoners accused of sedition (1817-19). His 

 powers were better adapted for success with a 

 popular than with a professional tribunal. Simple, 

 clear, and impressive, at times pathetic, humorous 

 at times, and, when he pleased, eloquent, but 

 always unaffected, always Scotch, he would urge 

 his case with an earnestness and candour that was 

 all but irresistible. A zealous supporter by pen as 

 well as by tongue of parliamentary reform, he 

 became Solicitor-general for Scotland under the 

 Grey ministry in 1830 ; had the chief hand in draft- 

 ing the Scottish Reform Bill ; was elected Lord 

 Rector of Glasgow University (1831) ; in 1834 was 

 made, as Lord Cockburn, a judge of the Court of 

 Session ; and three years later a lord of justiciary. 

 He died, 26th Apnl 1854, at Bonally Tower, his 

 beautiful home by the base of the Pentlands since 

 his marriage in 1811, and was buried near Jeffrey 

 in the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh. 



Besides five or six pamphlets, and as many 

 articles in the Edinburgh Review, dealing mostly 

 with legal and parliamentary reform, Cockbum 

 was author of an admirable Life of Jeffrey (1852), 

 and of four posthumous works Memorials of his 

 Time (1856), Journal, 1831-44 (2 vols. 1874), 

 Circuit Journeys (1888), and Examination of 

 Trials for Sedition in Scotland (2 vols. 1888). 

 The first three of these form a kind of autobio- 

 graphy, into which are woven characteristic anec- 

 dotes of old-world Scottish life, and graphic 

 sketches of the men who composed the brilliant 



