Parrots ^ Parakeets 171 



people, he evinced it by swooping down on to their 

 shoulders, and nipping the backs of their necks in a 

 very harsh and painful manner. 



Then, too, they are dreadfully destructive. 



Amongst my numerous pets there was at one time 

 a large white cockatoo which, like the smaller one, 

 had its full liberty out of doors. The rose trees 

 suffered as well as lots of others ; but that was a trifle 

 compared with indoor damage. 



One afternoon when we came in to tea, the floor of 

 the hall, under a large stained-glass window, was liber- 

 ally sprinkled with fragments of the said glass. 



We looked up. 



Clinging to the leading outside was the shadowy 

 form of a large bird, but poked through one of the 

 many holes made in the window between an aperture 

 of the lead was cocky's head, looking down with a trium- 

 phant expression in his eye at his work of destruction. 



He had carefully picked at each framing of lead, 

 and so let the glass fall out. 



Exit cocky ! 



The roseate cockatoo, with a grey back and bright 

 pink breast, is a handsome bird imported in large 

 numbers ; preferable, as a rule, in a large aviary, where 

 with plenty of room and hollow logs, they might nest. 



They are very hardy, as are most of their tribe, 

 when acclimatised. 



There is a curious but rare cockatoo called the 

 gang-gang, the male of which species has a dark grey 

 mottled body, with a brilliant scarlet head and crest ; 

 and this curls forward as if it had been crimped. 



