1 70 Parrots ^ Parakeets 



One I know is most vicious to all but two or three 

 people, but if any small bird or dormouse is placed in 

 a cage when the parrot is about in a room, he 

 waddles up, puts his head on one side, and makes 

 ridiculous little coaxings under his breath, like a fond 

 mother soothing a small baby. 



Then there are the cockatoos of Australia ; giant 

 black ones as big as ravens, and the well-known snow- 

 white ones with yellow crests. The leadbeater cock- 

 atoo is the handsomest of any, with his beautiful rose- 

 flushed plumage, his brown eyes, and his lovely crest 

 barred with pale pink, orange, and red. 



A pair of these birds, almost the first that were 

 imported, were given to my mother, and excited much 

 admiration — in the sixties, I think — at the Crystal 

 Palace bird show. 



After keeping them many years, they were given 

 to a lady in Norfolk, who had a splendid collection of 

 different parrots and parakeets, and finally — as far as I 

 know — they found a home at Sandringham, where 

 they may be still. 



But cockatoos are, as a rule, noisy pets, with their 

 harsh wild screams which, unlike grey parrots, they 

 never relinquish in captivity. 



The smaller white cockatoos, both lemon and 

 sulphur-crested, are very pretty, and become extremely 

 tame. 



But they, along with others of the parrot tribe, 

 have their likes and dislikes, so that I was forced to 

 part with a small lemon-crested cocky that used to fly 

 about the garden, because if he did take a dislike to 



