GREAT WHITE-CRESTED COCKATOO. 9 



of the trees in their native land. In England they are usually kept 

 chained by one leg to a perch fixed at right angles to an upright stand 

 of three or four feet in height. Stand and cross-bar should be made 

 of the hardest obtainable wood, and the ends of the perch should be 

 cased in tin or zinc; but perches made of metal are apt to give the 

 birds cramp, and even to produce inflammation of the lung's and bowels, 

 by chilling the poor creatures when the weather is cold; and we all 

 know what a distressing sensation is produced throughout the entire 

 system, when we sit shivering with cold feet, on some ungenial winter's 

 day, while waiting for a train perchance, or for the promised arrival 

 of a friend who fails to keep his appointment. 



The Great White Cockatoo is very easily tamed, if taken young from 

 the nest, and brought up by hand, or rather by mouth, for the proper 

 way to bring up young Parrots or Cockatoos who have lost, or been 

 taken from, their parents, is to boil some maize and oats until they 

 are quite soft, chew them to small pieces in the mouth, and let the 

 young things feed themselves there as they do when they trust their 

 beaks into their father's bill. A bird thus reared will become perfectly 

 tame and confiding, and, especially if his owner lives in the country, 

 may be trusted with entire liberty out of doors, even to accompanying 

 his master, or mistress, on a long walk, or ride: with children, how- 

 ever, they are nearly always spiteful and not to be trusted, and of dogs 

 they have an utter abhorrence, which they take every opportunity of 

 displaying. 



A bird of this species that belonged to a lady friend of ours, was 

 so tame that he was suffered to go about the place at his own sweet 

 will, and delighted in sitting on a paling some three or four feet away 

 from the utmost range of the chained house-dog, whom "Cocky" took 

 a malicious pleasure in driving almost to madness, which from his 

 great proficiency in the canine tongue, he could do without the least 

 difficulty whenever he liked, and in which, judging from the effect 

 produced upon his enemy, he was in the habit of making anything but 

 complimentary remarks upon the latter, and possibly his relatives and 

 friends. This bird, too, used apparently to take the greatest delight in 

 swooping down upon Ponto, and passing over his back, at a sufficient 

 distance to escape his jaws and claws, but yet near enough to flap him 

 on the nose with his powerful pinions: but the pitcher may go to the 

 well too often, and Master Cocky one day dared the house-dog for the 

 last time. 



Whether he swooped down lower, or more slowly than usual, or 

 whether the dog exerted more strength and leaped higher and with 

 greater impetus, who shall say? the bird was caught in Ponto's jaws, 



