GOFFIN'S COOEATOO. 5 



but in the house it is vastly different, for there their chief food is 

 absolutely dry, so that the Parrot, or Cockatoo, that, when wild, would 

 have been amply satisfied with the amount of moisture he could lick 

 off the leaves and grass, wet with the heavy dews of intertropical re- 

 gions, must have water to drink, or he will soon get out of health; so 

 that to deprive him of water, and force him, under such circumstances, 

 to eat a quantity of "sop" for the sake of the fluid it contains, is to 

 ruin his digestion, upset his liver and his temper, and turn an amiable 

 bird into a spiteful and screeching dyspeptic. No, Parrots must have 

 water, and plenty of it, and we regret to have to record the fact that 

 the authorities at the "Zoo" are not yet disabused of the contrary 

 notion, which no doubt, in great measure, accounts for the recent dates 

 prefixed to most of the cages in the Parrot House. 



Eheu! poor Paul Goffm, presented to the Gardens in a moment of 

 irritation induced by your too loudly and incessantly repeated demands 

 for "Potato!", when the bottom of your cage was littered with that 

 valuable tuber, we have no doubt that deprivation of your accustomed 

 potations was the cause of your untimely death, in less than two years 

 after your reception in that Institution, to which, if we had only known, 

 you never should have gone. 



Parrots, as a rule, do not care to bathe, that is to "tub"; but they 

 love to stand out in a warm summer shower, and stretch out each limb 

 alternately to catch the genial drops as they gently fall from heaven; 

 and nothing gives them greater pleasure than to roll and tumble, to 

 swim so to speak, in long grass that has just been soaked by a passing 

 shower. Failing, however, these natural modes of taking a bath, Master 

 Goffm, and Mistress Goffm, too, for that matter, will take water in 

 their beaks, now and then, from their drinking troughs and sprinkling 

 it on their backs, clinging the while to the bars of their cage with 

 outstretched wings and tail, and every feather ruffled out, making a 

 most consummate fuss, quite incommensurate with the importance of the 

 occasion. Should a warm summer shower be falling at any time, Goffm 

 will enjoy being placed outside to receive it on his back; but should 

 the weather be hot and dry, and no prospect of rain apparent, a bath 

 from the fine rose of a watering-pot, will be equally appreciated. 



So much for Goffm' s Cockatoo which, it will doubtless be gathered 

 from the above remarks, is one of our greatest favourites, and most 

 deservedly so, for we know no member of the Psittacidce that combines 

 the possession of so many admirable qualities with a paucity of bad 

 ones as the charming bird to which the late Mr. Goffm lent, or rather 

 gave his name. 



Goffms being, as we have said, comparatively rare birds, are conse- 



