From: bull@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Newsgroups: soc.culture.australian
Subject: Cocky stories (was Golden Syrup)
Date: 12 Apr 92 01:09:12 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.205742.19143@csc.ti.com>, rowlands@ra.ti.com (Jon Rowlands) writes:
> In article <1992Apr10.133159.1@ltnup.enet.dec.com>, quodling@ltnup.enet.dec.com
> writes:

> Absolutely. I had a tin which was passed down through three generations,
> finally meeting a sticky end in the decade of conspicuous consumption.
>
> Anyone know why this stuff is called Cocky's Joy? How do they get the lid
> off?

        The same way they pull roofing nails out of iron roofs. *I'M
NOT MAKING THIS UP*. The cockies really piss my parents off at times (my
folks run a farm in Victoria). Dad curses them for pulling the nails
out of the roof (something I've seen them do) and mum gets upset when
they pull all the clothes pegs off the clothes line, dumping all the
washing on the ground in the process. They're increadably tough birds.
In the wild they grow really long beaks that end in small hard points
which they use for prying and digging with.


        Hmmm, OK, I'll tell one of my favourite cocky stories while I'm
at it.

        My father was driving around one day and noticed a large flock of
cockies fly past. A short distance behind was a single cocky, but it
was blue in colour. Dad told mum what he saw and she immeadiately asked
if he'd been drinking, but he hadn't. A few days later he was telling some
people in the pub about the blue cocky. My did isn't prone to pullling
people's legs so the other people wondered what was gong on.

        About a week later my father saw a note in the local newspaper
saying that a blue cocky had been seen in the area. Obviously someone
told dad's story to the paper. A few days later one of dad's cousins rang
him after hearing that dad had seen a blue cocky and had talked about it
in the pub.

        The real story was that dad's cousin was having trouble with
cockies feeding of his newly sown crops. Poisining the seed grain was
illegal and shooting the cockies was a waste of time. What dad's cousin
did was lure some cockies into cages with grain as bait. He then painted
them in really bright colours (red, blue, green, yellow). He even tried
painting some to look like hawks. Then he let them go. The idea was that
the painted cockies would try to rejoin the flock, but because of their
new colour, the rest of the flock would fly away when they saw the
non-cockies approach, and hopefully leave the crop seed alone. The painted
cockies would constantly chase after the flock, not letting them get much
rest or time to feed on crop seed. When some other farmers heard about
this they decided to try it as well. I don't know how well it works but
it hasn't been tried in years in my parents area.

        Cockatoos normally come in either white with a yellow crest
and yellow wing and tail undersides, or black with the crest and wing
and tail undersides varying from a bright orange colour through to a
vivid red. The black cockies are not common.

        I've gone on for long enough. The story of the bald cocky can
wait, unless enough people want to hear it.

           Bull@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au  OR  bull@monu1.cc.monash.oz
                      Alias: Gareth Bull, The Opal Dragon
                    DOD# 251  '84 VF 750   Closet Ducatisti
            Huet dich bauer, ich komm! - Watch out farmer, I come!
Newsgroups: soc.culture.australian