134 
LITTLE FOLKS 
Cockatoos are always covered with a white powdery substance 
that comes off in your hand if you touch them. The use of it is 
not known. In their native country they are not very much liked, 
especially by farmers, for they are terrible destroyers of crops, 
grains and seeds being their favorite food. In the London 
Zoological Gardens they are fed on boiled rice. 
Here is another droll bird, not for his bill however, but for 
his tremendous tail, which he seems to admire in the picture. 
Who would think he belonged to the same family as the common 
wren ! This very elegant creature, the Lyre Bird, is a native of 
New South Wales, and his splendid tail is often as much as ten 
feet long. He lives in the bushes, and is extremely shy, and hard 
to find. The hunter has to crawl and creep among the brush, 
while the bird is singing, for the least crack of a twig will send him 
off like a shot. He is curious though, and a whistle or other 
peculiar sound will excite his curiosity. He will fly up to the 
nearest branch of a tree, and look around for the cause. He never 
tries to escape from danger by flying, but relies on his legs, and he 
can run faster than anything or anybody. 
He can leap, too, sometimes as much as ten feet directly up in 
the air. 
