IN CAPTIVITY IN LOWER BENGAL. 255 



them appreciate and enjoy a shower from a garden syringe or a water- 

 ing can ; in fact this is a necessity for them during the sultry hot 

 days in summer. 



Food. — Paddy, Indian- corn, gram, barley, hemp-seed, chillies, and 

 vegetables form their principal food in captivity ; but besides these a 

 variety of other things may be given them : the long-billed cockatoo is 

 extremely fond of sweet potatoes, and enjoys nothing better than digging 

 up roots and bulbs with its long and pointed bill. Most of them are very 

 fond of sugarcane ; the great black cockatoo manages, with surprising 

 ease, to extract the kernel of the hardest nuts which a hammer will 

 break with difficulty ; in captivity all of them evince great partiality 

 for biscuits, which may be given them as a change; soft food, such as 

 bread and milk or milk and rice, should be avoided as much as possible. 

 Although some of the cockatoos feed a great deal upon caterpillars and 

 insects in their wild state, they do better without them in captivity ; 

 in fact, except under special circumstances, no stimulating food should 

 be supplied. 



Breeding.— The great white- crested, the long-billed, and the sul- 

 phur-crested cockatoos have sometimes laid in the garden, . but none 

 of them could be induced to sit, although in every instance the 

 cage containing the birds was removed to a quiet spot. As far as they 

 have been observed, cockatoos are not unlikely to breed in this climate 

 if suitably lodged ; a spacious cage or a small aviary in some retired 

 part of the garden, as much embowered and sheltered by creepers and 

 shrubs as possible, is all that is necessary ; each pair of birds intended 

 for breeding should, of course, be kept separate, and some hollow logs 

 of wood provided as nesting accommodation. When the birds show 

 symptoms of pairing, some stimulating food may be supplied, such as 

 insects, caterpillars, or even finely minced mutton. 



Transport. — The travelling cage for cockatoos ought to be lined 

 inside with zinc or sheet iron, and the front made of \ n or, still better, J" 

 iron bars, as otherwise they will soon cut through the wire or the plank ; 

 as many of them can be sent in a cage as the perch will accommodate ; 

 they are not much given to fighting when a number of the same 

 species are being carried in this fashion ; an exception must of course 

 be made with respect to the rose-crested and great black cockatoos. 



Treatment in sickness. 



Fortunately cockatoos have generally maintained excellent health 

 in this garden, and comparatively few cases of sickness have been 

 observed. Diarrhoea has sometimes been noticed in cockatoos, probably 

 induced by careless feeding or brought on by exposure to cold ; in such 

 cases birds recover when the cause is removed. Running from the nose 

 caused by cold is not unfrequent in cockatoos during the winter ; this 

 shows that the housing is faulty and that they require more warmth ; 

 but if the bird is really bad from cold and shows a disinclination for food 

 and drink, chlorate of potash, liquorice and honey should be prescribed. 

 During the hot weather cockatoos have been known to drop down 

 suddenly dead from apoplexy ; as the subjects suffered from fat, over- 

 feeding was probably the cause of these deaths. 



