GOFFIN’8 COOKATOO. 
5 
but iu tbe bouse it is vastly different, for there their chief food is 
absolutely dry, so that the Parrot, or Cockatoo, that, when wild, would 
have been amply satisfied with the amount of moisture he could lick 
off the leaves and grass, wet with the heavy dews of intertropical re- 
gions, must have water to drink, or he will soon get out of health; so 
that to deprive him of water, and force him, under such circumstances, 
to eat a quantity of “^“^sop’^ for the sake of the fluid it contains, is to 
ruin his digestion, upset his liver and his temper, and turn an amiable 
bird into a spiteful and screeching dyspeptic. No, Parrots must have 
water, and plenty of it, and we regret to have to record the fact that 
the authorities at the “^'Zoo^^ are not yet disabused of the contrary 
notion, which no doubt, in great measure, accounts for the recent dates 
prefixed to most of the cages in the Parrot House. 
Eheu! poor Paul Goffin, presented to the Gardens in a moment of 
irritation induced by your too loudly and incessantly repeated demands 
for Potato!”, when the bottom of your cage was littered with that 
valuable tuber, we have no doubt that deprivation of your accustomed 
potations was the cause of your untimely death, in less than two years 
after your reception in that Institution, to which, if we had only known, 
you never should have gone. 
Parrots, as a rule, do not care to bathe, that is to “^Gub^^; but they 
love to stand out in a warm summer shower, and stretch out each limb 
alternately to catch the genial drops as they gently fall from heaven; 
and nothing gives them greater pleasure than to roll and tumble, to 
swim so to speak, in long grass that has just been soaked by a passing 
shower. Failing, however, these natural modes of taking a bath, Master 
Goffin, and Mistress Gotfin, too, for that matter, will take water in 
their beaks, now and then, from their drinking troughs and sprinkling 
it on their backs, clinging the while to the bars of their cage with 
outstretched wings and tail, and every feather ruffled out, making a 
most consummate fuss, quite incommensurate with the importance of the 
occasion. Should a warm summer shower be falling at any time, Goffin 
will enjoy being placed outside to receive it on his back; but should 
the weather be hot and dry, and no prospect of rain apparent, a bath 
from the fine rose of a watering-pot, will be equally appreciated. 
So much for Goffin’ s Cockatoo which, it will doubtless be gathered 
from the above remarks, is one of our greatest favourites, and most 
deservedly so, for we know no member of the Psittacidce that combines 
the possession of so many admirable qualities with a paucity of bad 
ones as the charming bird to which the late Mr. Goffin lent, or rather 
gave his name. 
Goffins being, as we have said, comparatively rare birds, are conse- 
