30 SLENDER-BILLED COCKATOO. 



one than we used to have: but to generalize from particulars is bad 

 logic, and, as we have already remarked in this connection, birds have 

 their several idiosyncrasies as well as ourselves, and vary as much in 

 their respective characters and dispositions as men do. 



These birds have the recommendation of being extremely hardy, and 

 care nothing for the inclemencies of our severest winters, roosting 

 preferably out of doors, when in a garden aviary, to seeking the 

 covered-in portion of their abode: in the matter of their diseases we 

 are quite without experience, for We have never seen one of them ill, 

 and believe that they are among the most enduring of their race. 



In addition to the Port Essington Slender-bill, there is a larger bird 

 of the same description that is a native of the Islands to the north 

 of Australia; it is occasionally to be met with in captivity, but is very 

 generally confounded with the species under consideration, from which 

 it differs in no other respect than size. An individual of this variety, 

 the divergence of type is not sufficient to constitute it a distinct species, 

 that once came under our notice, seemed a very intelligent quiet old 

 fellow : he had passed a good many years in captivity in a round Parrot- 

 cage, and had probably out-lived his recollections of a free life in the 

 woods and forests of his native isle, for often as we have been in his 

 company, we never heard him scream, and his disposition, at all times, 

 was the same, placid and apparently contented: he seemed to derive 

 much pleasure and satisfaction from having his head scratched, and 

 would remain under the operation as long as his visitor had the patience 

 to rub, first one side, and then the other of his "poll." He was not 

 much of a linguist, was "Cocky"; his own name, and the monosyllable 

 "Well?" uttered interrogatively, was about the extent of his accom- 

 plishments in this direction: but his quietude and amiability, in spite 

 of his ungainly appearance, for when all has been said and done, the 

 Slender-billed Cockatoo is not a pretty bird, almost made us envy his 

 owner his possession; for at that time our great pet, and first favourite, 

 was a splendid Groffin, who was noisy and talkative to an extreme degree, 

 and the contrast between the two was remarkable. 



Coffin's beauty, however, more than counterbalanced his noisiness in 

 our estimation, and the great Slender-billed one's ugliness could not 

 be overlooked, even for the sake of his amiable docility. So true it is, 

 that, in this world, appearance, if not exactly everything, goes a long 

 way towards getting the fortunate possessor excused a number of not 

 always minor faults. 



During the breeding season the Slender-billed Cockatoos separate 

 into pairs, making their home in the hollow branches of the loftiest 

 gum-trees they can find; we remember once seeing several of them 



