THE RINGED PARRAKEET. 



379 



The individual from which the illustration is taken, is a very great favorite in the house 

 where he belongs, being looked upon more in the light of a human being than a bird. Her 

 birthday is scrupulously kept, and on that auspicious morning she is always presented with a 

 sponge cake, which she eats daintly while sitting on the mantel-piece, chuckling to herself at 

 intervals. She is a most affectionate little creature, and cannot bear that any of her especial 

 friends should leave the room without bidding farewell ; and I once saw her set up such a 

 screech because her mistress happened to go away without speaking to her, that she had to be 

 taken out of her cage and comforted before she would settle quietly. 



Her owner has kindly pre- 

 sented to me the following 

 account of the bird : 



" You ask me to tell you 

 something about my little 

 Polly. Perhaps the simplest 

 plan will be to give a sketch 

 of her history, premising that 

 although I believe my little 

 pet to be a male, still, as I 

 love her so tenderly, I always 

 use the feminine pronoun in 

 speaking of and to her. 



"Polly's birth-place was 

 Trincomalee, and she was 

 brought over to America by 

 one of my wife's sons, an 

 officer in the navy, being ac- 

 companied hither by a vast 

 retinue of Parrakeets, almost 

 all of which fell victims to the 

 rough, cold weather which 

 they had to encounter, to- 

 gether with the change of 

 climate. The poor birds liter- 

 ally laid them down and died, 

 the deck being strewn with 

 their elegant forms. Polly, I 

 am thankful to say, was 

 blessed with an excellent con- 

 stitution, and her nurse, a kind-hearted, weather-beaten sailor, loved her, and she lay in 

 his bosom and was so kept warm and comfortable through the cold. 



"On Polly's arrival at Portsmouth, her nurse, being obliged to attend to other matters, 

 left her to her own resources in an old cage in which she usually slept, when her horizon was 

 suddenly darkened by a cloud of bum-boat women from the shore, one of whom, seeing her 

 defenceless situation, seized upon her, like Glumdalclitch upon Gulliver, and conveyed the 

 delicate little creature to her coarse bosom. Fortunately for Polly, she uttered a little sound, 

 which was heard by her nurse, who, seizing the woman by the shoulders, rescued Polly from 

 the vile embrace. 



"After this contretemps, Polly was put into a rickety old cage, with two buns for her 

 nourishment, and sent all by herself in the train to Washington. On her arrival there 

 she was forwarded to a person who had formerly been confidential servant to my wife. One 

 morning, this good person, hearing a great chattering down-stairs, looked in at her back- 

 parlor door, and there, to her infinite surprise, she saw Polly seated upon the cat's back, 

 chattering away at no allowance, while pussy was majestically marching round the room. 



HINGED PAEBAKEET. Palceornis torgruatus. 



