BOSE-BBBASTED GOOKATOO. 
23 
my pockets contained a neat assortment of suitable food, which at regular 
intervals underwent the process of mastication, preparatory to being 
equally shared between my two baby Cockatoos. The trouble was cer- 
tainly great, but the results were perfectly satisfactoiy.’' 
“My young Cockatoos were very slow of growth, and required assis- 
tance in feeding until quite three months old, for although they would 
pick up stray bits of food, yet they greatly preferred to have it from 
the fingers of their owner. The absurdity of the performance between 
their foster-mother and themselves was highly amusing, for the bantam, 
who nursed them tenderly, would excite their hunger by picking up 
morsels of food and calling loudly to her adopted children, they imme- 
diately endeavoured to thrust their large beaks into her mouth, at which 
proceeding she would appear greatly astonished, and looking inquiringly, 
first at one and then at the other big-headed baby, she would take up 
the fallen scrap and go through the performance again with similar 
results. The little black hen eventually abandoned all attempts to feed 
her strange children, but she was very much attached to them, and 
a quaint trio they looked when basking together in the sunshine, the 
hen dusting herself, and the youngsters climbing about her body, in 
the vain endeavour to escape a shower of grit with which they were 
every now and then assailed. The early plumage of these birds was 
less brilliant than that of the adult, and the breast was, moreover, 
largely mottled with grey, but at twelve months old thei’e was nothing 
by which to distinguish them from birds four times their age.” 
To the foregoing interesting account we can only add that it seems 
to us a pity that so much care and attention, both on the part of the 
human foster-father, and the bantam hen foster-mother, were wasted 
upon such unworthy subjectsj had they been Gofiius, indeed, or even 
Leadboators, but Rosy Cockatoos! We candidly confess we should not 
have taken the trouble. 
The food of this species is identical with that recommended for the 
other members of this sub-family of the Psittacidm ah-eady described 
in these pages, namely: hemp, oats, maize, bread-crumb (dry), biscuit, 
and green food of all kinds, excepting fresh lettuce and parsley; water, 
too, must not be forgotten; in fact, we can never too often reiterate 
the necessity of an abundant and pure supply of this essential element 
for Parrots of every kind; while milk and meat must be rigorously 
withheld, unless it be wished to see the poor birds pluck out their 
own feathers. 
A stand seems to us preferable to a cage for any of the larger Parrots, 
Macaws, and Cockatoos; they have more liberty and a greater range 
on the former than in the latter, unless the cage be of such dimensions 
