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Beadbeater’s ‘Cockatoo. 
ta-r> • 
Psittacus Leadbeateri, Euss. 
Synonyms: Plyctolophus Leadbeateri, Plyctoloplms erythropterus, 
Cacatua Leadbeateri. German: Ber Inha-Eakadu. 
T ime was when the acquisition of this glorious bird meant money, 
and that a considerable sum; from £25 to £30 apiece being asked 
and freely given; but then communication with Australia was a matter 
of difficulty, from four to seven months being reckoned an ordinary 
passage; whereas now the transit is accomplished in about forty days, 
and the Leadbeater’s price has fallen accordingly to £5 or £6; and 
occasionally a fine specimen may be picked up for a much less sum. 
Beyond his beauty, and that is great, there is nothing to recommend 
this bird to the notice of amateurs, for he is not very intelligent, nor 
is he docile; he never learns much, and invariably remains wild and 
suspicious, even after years of captivity, and much patient effort to 
convert him to a better frame of mind. Doubtless there are exceptions 
to the rule we have laid down, for birds have their several idiosyncrasies 
as well as men, and individuals are always to be found of a more pliable 
disposition than the average members of their race. 
Dr. Euss has not very much to say about this fine bird, but in his 
Handbook, dismisses it with a curt notice of half-a-dozen lines, quoting 
its price in Germany at from fifty to sixty marks, which is less fhan 
the sum for which it can be purchased here: but this is easily to be 
accounted for, the Germans are essentially a practical people, and, when 
all has been said for him that can be said, Leadbeater is an impracti- 
cable bird. 
In size, Leadbeater’s Cockatoo rather exceeds the common Grey 
Parrot, and is a trifle larger than Goffin’s; the general colour is that 
of raspberries and cream, a most delicious tint suggestive of summer 
days at a farmhouse in the country when we were young: the pink 
shade is deeper on the head, neck and under parts of the body than 
