62 Favourite Foreign Birds. 



The best staple food for all the Amazon Parrots 

 is hemp-seed, which may be varied with ripe fruit, 

 plain biscuit, and nuts now and then. It is needless 

 to remark that all Parrots should have water to 

 drink, and a piece of soft wood on which to exercise 

 their beaks, the want of which often impels them 

 to pluck out their feathers and make themselves 

 anything but a "joy for ever." 



THE COCKATOOS are a numerous and noisy race, but 



FIG. 20. THE ROSE-BREASTED COCKATOO. 



general favourites nevertheless. A lady of my ac- 

 quaintance once had as many as fifteen of them, among 

 which were two GREAT SALMON-CRESTED MOLUCCAS 

 COCKATOOS, Cacatua moluccensis, a BLUE-EYED COCK- 

 ATOO, C. ophthalmica, and a BARE-EYED COCKATOO, 

 C. gymnopis, the latter a wonderful talker. Among 

 the others were a NOSEY COCKATOO, Licmetis 

 tenuirostris, also an accomplished bird ; a LEADBEATER 



