GOFFIN'S COCKATOO. 3 



in the season, which extends, in this country, from May to September. 

 Young ones hatched in the latter month, however, will not be reared 

 unless removed indoors along with their parents, for the first cold night 

 after they quitted the nest would be surely fatal to them. 



Goffins grow very slowly, taking quite three years to attain maturity, 

 so that they are long-lived birds, enduring, with ordinary care, for a long 

 time in the house: this accounts for the fact that dealers, who really 

 know little or nothing about these birds, try to persuade intending 

 purchasers that the large birds are males, and the small ones females : 

 as we have said the female is smaller, but size is not an infallible guide 

 to the differentiation of the sexes, but the colour of the iris is, and 

 the aviarist will do well to rely upon no other. 



There are stories of flesh-eating Parrots current, but requiring con- 

 firmation: many of these birds, however are partially insectivorous, and 

 of the latter Goffin is undoubtedly one; at the same time, in captivity, 

 he will do extremely well without animal food, which, unless he is 

 mated, or rearing a young family, is of far too stimulating a nature to 

 be given except at rarest intervals. Oats, maize, canary and hemp-seed, 

 boiled potatoes, a crust of bread or a captain's biscuit, are all good for 

 him; the seeds as his ordinary diet, and the other comestibles mentioned 

 as an occasional bonne louche. It may be as well, here, to caution the 

 intending purchaser — and we flatter ourselves that every reader of this 

 article will, sooner or later, be one — that it is unwise to keep Master 

 Goffin in the dining-room, at least while meals are being partaken of, 

 for he will become so clamorous for potato, and other dainties that his 

 owners will know no peace : let him be helped as freely as possible, he 

 will just take one tiny bite from the morsel he holds in his handy foot, 

 drop it, literally like a hot potato, to the bottom of his cage, and in- 

 continently shout for "more' - '; which becomes monotonous after a while 

 and decidedly unpleasant. It is of no use to cover him over, he only 

 screams the louder, and even if banished to a distant part of the house, 

 his shrill shrieks will permeate every portion of it, until his owners 

 wish him back upon his native islands. 



Once a bad habit has taken hold of one of these birds, it is simply 

 impossible to break him off it, so that the obvious course is not to 

 permit him to contract one: keep him out of the room at meal- times, 

 feed him at stated intervals, and all will go well; but let him see you 

 eating — what more natural than that he should want his share? — and 

 there will be no peace while he remains upon the premises. 



Green food is indispensable, groundsel in flower, dandelions, chicory, 

 lettuce that has been a day or two out of the ground, a slice of carrot, 

 too, raw or cooked, are excellent for keeping him in health, and should, 



