Some Experiences of Cocliatoos. 
223 
The next to go were Cocky's enemy and his mate, who 
apparently wandered away of their own accord. More than 
two years later I traced the former to his abode in a London 
workhouse, where, as he had become a good talker and was 
valued by his owner I decided to let him remain. 
I was therefore left with the despised i-ougli cock, 
and the stump -tailed hen, besides the aged bird already men- 
tioned. The rough cock had changed almost beyond recog- 
nition, and after a few weeks of freedom began to look 
quite trim and respectable. Towards the end of April he 
and the hen selected as their nesting place the hollow 
limb of an old poplar and in due course eggs 
were laid and two young birds made their appear- 
ance. The tinal exit of the latter was hastened in a 
rather ludicrous manner by an inquisitive Banksian. For 
manj' days after their wings had grown they had ignore|d 
all their parents' endeavours to persuade them "to Qy and 
had remained cautiously peering out of the entrance to their 
home; but when the huge black apparition suddenly looked 
down at them from a branch only a few inches above their 
heads, they hesitated no longer, but launched themselves into 
space with all possible haste. Their parents seemed rather 
relievea than otherwise at the unexpected assistance they had 
received. Possibly they had long been threatening their 
disobedient children with the avian equivalent of the " bogey 
man," and were therefore agreeably surprised by his quite 
unexpected arrival. For a short time all went well with 
the young birds; then one fell a victim to microbic enteritis 
and some months later the second also vanished, having prob- 
ably been carried off by the same ailment. The old pair 
did Rvell until the following February, when the hen died 
from egg -laying troubles, exactly as her predecessor had done. 
There appears little doubt that this is the usual fate of hen 
Roseates, which attempt to breed in cold weather, and I 
should have done wisely to have caught her up in the late 
autumn and kept her confined until the return of springj. 
To make up for her loss I obtained another hen from the 
Zoological Gardens, but she brought me bad luck, for after 
staying for a few days she flew clean away, taking tbe- 
cock with her, and I never heard of either again. It was a 
