25G 
Some Expexiences oj Cocl'afoos. 
body. The whole time he was in the air Teddy kept utter 
ing- his peculiar call— deep, melancholy, and sonorous—" just 
like a lost soul," as someone described it. When at rest, his 
cry was shorten' and less loud and varied in intonation accord- 
ing to the state of his feelings. The call of the hens when 
on the wing, was, as I ,found later, harsher, and higher pitclied, 
and a,t other times they often made a gentle whining noise only 
audible at the distance of a few yards. When frightened they 
uttered a low hiss, and, if greatly tenified, a loud grating 
scream, at the same time flattening their crests and not raising 
them as most Cockatoos do when alarmed. 
For the lirsv few days Teddy kept us well occupied in 
looking after him. It was all right as long as there were 
plenty of his fi'iends in sight to keep him company, but at 
other times, and especially in the late evening, he would take 
long flights and it was often a dillicult task to overtake him 
and bring him home. On one oct-asion he went furthjei' 
than usual and completely lost his bearings, l>ut fortunately he 
had the sense to make his way to the nearest village, where 
he repaired to the public house, ami waited quietly for someone 
to come and fetrli him. Very soon, however, he got fo know 
the geography of his new home thoroughly, and although 
he made plenty of use of his wings, he gave us no more 
trouble as long as I had him. At tirst we always maaf? a 
l>oint of shutting him up at night, but he soon grew to resent 
this and would not allow hinrself to be caught; so, as he 
appeared to 'take no harm from sleeping on ihis favourite perch— 
the window-sill of one of the upper rooms in the stables— 
I allowed him to have his own way and roost in the open air. 
Like most Banksians, Teddy was a small eater, with little 
partiality for tit-bits. If he had a weakness for anything 
it was for butter, of which luiwholesome viand he would 
consume a good deal if allowed the opjiortunity of doing so. 
His staple food consisted of suntlower seed, and monkey nuts; 
fruit or green-stuff of any description he would not touch. 
In disposition he was, as I have said Ivefore, gentle and 
dignified, and always ready to be friendly with human beings 
of bcth sexes; at the same time he would never force his 
company upon you when you did not want him— a rare virtue 
in a tame bird I He had one peculiarity, whit.'h he shared in 
