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The Marquess of Tavistock —



THE REARING OF WHITE-BRED ROSEATE


COCKATOOS


By The Marquess of Tavistock


Some years ago the late Mr. Heumann sent me what he hoped would

prove a white Roseate Cockatoo. The bird’s wings were a rather

chalky white, but as her plumage was a good deal stained by travel

it was difficult to tell what colour she really was. During the moult

she assumed a garb of rather pale grey, which was a disappointment,

but she was a good breeding hen and, paired to a normal male, reared

more than one family without fuss or bother. A few years later

Mr. Heumann sent me a pair and this time there was no mistaking the

genuine article, their snowy wings and backs forming a lovely contrast

to their rosy breasts. Alas ! tragedy was in store. The use of damp

sand to cover the cage floor produced a serious chill. In spite of every¬

thing we could do the hen died and only with difficulty did we save the

cock. When spring came round I sent the survivor, together with the

pale grey female, to my friends at Keston, but though the birds kept

in good health, the change to a small aviary demoralized them and they

made no serious attempt at nesting.


Neither did matters improve when I brought them to Peasmarsh.

The first year they did nothing : last year things looked much more

promising but at the last moment the hen dropped her egg from the

perch in the aviary shelter. She then collected a few slivers of wood

and arranged them round the broken egg as a sort of funeral wreath

and proceeded to moult. This year I provided her with a tempting

assortment of tree-trunks and grandfather-clock nests with bark-covered

tops. One of the latter appeared to attract her. You can always tell

if Cockatoos are favourably impressed with the type of nest you offer

them. If they like it they go into it but bite it very little ; after all,

if we liked our new house we should never think of gnawing a hole

through the front door and another through the nursery floor !


As a precaution I told the aviary attendant to put some soft material

on the floor of the shelter in case the hen should forget herself again.

Sure enough she did : one morning an egg lay on the floor and what



