COCKATIEL. 35 



That these birds, as we have said, breed in hollow boughs in their 

 own country is without doubt, but ours preferred a box with harlf a 

 cocoa-nut husk cemented in it: although capable of giving a severe 

 bite, we have not observed in the Cockatiel that passionate desire for 

 whittling so common in the Parrot family, but, on the contrary, an 

 evident disinclination to burrow and scoop out wood, so that possibly, 

 if solid logs only, though ever so rotton, were given them, that was 

 the reason a recent writer's birds preferred nesting on the ground, 

 to taking the trouble to hollow out a dwelling for themselves, or even 

 to enlarging a burrow that had been partially prepared for them. 



The food of this species consists mainly of grass-seeds in their native 

 wilds, and in captivity they seem to prefer canary-seed to any other, 

 but when they have young ones to feed, they will eat, and seem to 

 require, oats and bread-crumbs, soaked in cold water as well as dry, 

 but not hard. The Cockatiel is undoubtedly a lazy bird, at least becomes 

 so under domestication, and will never do for himself anything that he 

 can get his owner to do for him. Thus in the matter of feeding the 

 young ones, there can be no doubt that in their native woods the 

 parent birds forage far and near to provide their progeny with food, 

 but in the bird-room or aviary, unless the food is just to their taste, 

 and placed where they can readily reach it, they will rather let the 

 young ones starve, than take the least trouble to fill their hungry little 

 bellies, for they will not eat enough seed to feed both themselves and 

 their young ones, but prefer to gobble up a quantity of bread, which 

 does not need much preparation, and if a supply of this food fails, we 

 have found that the young birds suffer. 



Although good walkers and quick runners, the Oockatiels are also 

 strong on the wing, and circle round and round their domicile, in a 

 bold and graceful manner, when let out for a fly: this is an accom- 

 plishment they learn quickly, but had better be taught in the country 

 than in London, where such multitudes of cats are ever on the look 

 out for a morsel, and have no more scruple in pouncing on the most 

 valuable exotic bird that, unfortunately, falls in their way, than on the 

 dirtiest and most disreputable of cockney sparrows. 



Cockatiels are healthy and long-lived birds, enduring for quite a 

 number of years; a male that has been in our possession for the last 

 ten years, and we have no idea of his age at the time when he became 

 an inmate of our aviary, appears, as we write, to be in the perfection 

 of health and vigour: married to his third wife since he has lived with 

 us, he is now busily engaged in providing for the wants of a young 

 family, and seems to enter as heartily into the discharge of his important 

 duties as ever he did. 



