BOSE-BBEASTED COCKATOO. 23 



my pockets contained a neat assortment of suitable food, which at regular 

 intervals underwent the process of mastication, preparatory to being 

 equally shared between my two baby Cockatoos. The trouble was cer- 

 tainly great, but the results were perfectly satisfactory." 



"My young Cockatoos were very slow of growth, and required assis- 

 tance in feeding until quite three months old, for although they would 

 pick up stray bits of food, yet they greatly preferred to have it from 

 the fingers of their owner. The absurdity of the performance between 

 their foster-mother and themselves was highly amusing, for the bantam, 

 who nursed them tenderly, would excite their hunger by picking up 

 morsels of food and calling loudly to her adopted children, they imme- 

 diately endeavoured to thrust their large beaks into her mouth, at which 

 proceeding she would appear greatly astonished, and looking inquiringly, 

 first at one and then at the other big-headed baby, she would take up 

 the fallen scrap and go through the performance again with similar 

 results. The little black hen eventually abandoned all attempts to feed 

 her strange children, but she was very much attached to them, and 

 a quaint trio they looked when basking together in the sunshine, the 

 hen dusting herself, and the youngsters climbing about her body, in 

 the vain endeavour to escape a shower of grit with which they were 

 every now and then assailed. The early plumage of these birds was 

 less brilliant than that of the adult, and the breast was, moreover, 

 largely mottled with grey, but at twelve months old there was nothing 

 by which to distinguish them from birds four times their age." 



To the foregoing interesting account we can only add that it seems 

 to us a pity that so much care and attention, both on the part of the 

 human foster-father, and the bantam hen foster-mother, were wasted 

 upon such unworthy subjects; had they been Coffins, indeed, or even 

 Leadbeaters, but Rosy Cockatoos ! We candidly confess we should not 

 have taken the trouble. 



The food of this species is identical with that recommended for the 

 other members of this sub-family of the Psittaoidce already described 

 in these pages, namely: hemp, oats, maize, bread-crumb, (dry), biscuit, 

 and green food of all kinds, excepting fresh lettuce and parsley; water, 

 too, must not be forgotten; in fact, we can never too often reiterate 

 the necessity of an abundant and pure supply of this essential element 

 for Parrots of every kind; while milk and meat must be rigorously 

 withheld, unless it be wished to see the poor birds pluck out their 

 own feathers. 



A stand seems to us preferable to a cage for any of the larger Parrots, 

 Macaws, and Cockatoos; they have more liberty and a greater range 

 on the former than in the latter, unless the cage be of such dimensions 



