2 
GOFFIN’S COCKATOO. 
noiseless personage, rarely opening her mouth, except to appropriate 
the various good things in the shape of food with which her owner 
has supplied her, and — this is the surest differentiating mark, — the irides 
in her case are chesnut brown, while those of her lord and master are 
jet-black. 
GolEn, as we have said, is comparatively a rare bird, so that few 
people have had the pleasure of possessing a specimen: let those who 
are so fortunate as to include one in their collection, take care of him, 
for he is teachable and lovable, making one of the most charming pets 
that can be imagined. There seems no limit to the capacity for ac- 
quiring knowledge of the human language possessed by this intelligent 
bird, which often picks up, not only words, but long sentences, which 
have been pronounced in its presence but on a single occasion; while 
as for domestic sounds of all kinds, from the whimpering of an infant 
to the crowing of cocks, and even the song of a canary bird, he readily 
acquires, and with wonderful fidelity to nature reproduces them all. 
The female, as we have said, is a silent bird; one that we had in 
our possession for some time, though mated with a most loquacious 
husband, never succeeded in mastering his acquired language, beyond 
repeating in a low and timid voice the two words “Welh^ and “Martha” 
— the latter her own name. 
The male has one great drawback, however, he is an inveterate and 
ear-piercing screamer, not at all times be it understood, but when he 
is “put out”, or hungry, or wants to be let out of his cage for a 
ramble round the room, or is feeling dull, or, perhaps, poor thing! 
when his hver is out of order: but we have never heard the female 
scream, not even when teased and provoked in every possible way; hers 
really seems to be an imperturbable temper, and oh! what a blessed 
possession that is to be sure, for bird or man! 
Although natives of an intertropical region, the Goffins are by no 
means delicate, but on the contrary hardy to the extent of being win- 
tered safely out of doors in a partially covered aviary, where, if pro- 
vided with suitable nesting arrangements they will also breed. 
Like all the Parrot tribe, with one or two doubtful exceptions, the 
nesting-place of Goffin’s Cockatoos is in the hollow of some dead branch 
of one of the larger trees that flourish in their native wilds: beyond 
smoothing out, and carefully freeing from all extraneous matter, the 
cavity they have selected for their dwelling place, these birds make no 
nest, properly so called, but lay their eggs on the smooth wood; three 
or four in number, and about the same size as those of the Collared 
Dove {Columha risoriusj but somewhat rounder, the eggs are pure 
white, hatched in twenty-one days, and there are usually two broods 
