36 COGKATIEL. 



Last summer the poor fellow had a delicate wife that often suffered, 

 and eventually died from egg-binding, to which fell disease his first 

 spouse was also a victim, and took upon himself more than his own 

 share of the onerous duty of providing for the exceptionally large family 

 of seven young Cockatiels, so that he became quite weak and ill, so 

 much so that we were fearful we were about to lose him; but his task 

 accomplished, Eichard was soon himself again, and actively preparing 

 to rear another brood, when, one morning after a severe storm, we 

 found the poor invalid wife stretched lifeless on the floor of the aviary. 



For days after "Joey" seemed utterly disconsolate, and was inces- 

 santly calling for his partner, in tones that sounded exactly like a 

 plaintive imitation of the words "0 wife, wife, wife, wife!" until it 

 became so perfectly heartrending to listen to his outcries, that we pro- 

 cured him "another", to whom he was a considerable time before he 

 grew thoroughly reconciled; but "Time", says the proverb, "heals and 

 consoles", and after a few days, he first endured, and then embraced 

 the substitute, who is now the happy mother of his youngest sons, or 

 daughters; it is, as yet, impossible to say to which of the sexes the 

 little yellow balls of fluff in the nest-box belong. 



The Cockatiel is a noisy bird, but his notes are not so shrill as those 

 of many of his congeners, though they lack the sweetness of the Bed- 

 rump's tones; but his partner is a very silent bird, seldom giving vent 

 to a little ghost of a shriek, or hissing hoarsely, like a young owl, 

 when disturbed from her nest. The young hiss as well as their mother, 

 and that from a very early age. 



It is almost superfluous to add here that the young of all the Parrot 

 tribe do not gape, but are fed, as pigeons feed, by the old ones dis- 

 gorging half- digested food from their own crops into the beaks of the 

 babies, which they take into their own, both old and young making a 

 pumping kind of motion, a bowing and scraping as one might say 

 during the operation. And yet, such is the Cimmerian darkness pre- 

 vailing, even in high quarters, as to the domestic habits of birds, that, 

 recently, we saw a picture, drawn by an eminent artist too, of a nestful 

 of young Parrots, gaping as widely as a parcel of young thrushes might 

 do, while they were being crammed by their parents with what looked 

 like currant-buns, but was probably intended to represent some kind 

 of fruit! 



Taken, when about half-fledged, from the nest, and brought up by 

 hand, or rather by mouth, the young male Cockatiel becomes the most 

 charming pet that can be imagined: in point of fact there is scarcely 

 any accomplishment that he cannot be taught; he will perform all 

 manner of little tricks, such as kissing his mistress, pretending to be 



