Longevity of the Parrot. 349 



atmosphere in which many are doomed to spin out their lives, 

 the diseases to which they are subject, and many other liabi- 

 lities, often carry them off the stage ere they arrive at matu- 

 rity. Many, too, even of our most familiar creatures, when 

 they come to be subservient to man, die of old age even in 

 youth ! fully demonstrating that scriptural truth, " The tender 

 mercies of the wicked are cruel." 



The difficulty of finding out the length of the days of the 

 insect and the finny tribes will, I fear, increase almost to im- 

 possibility. Still, I feel persuaded much valuable inform- 

 ation might be obtained, if observers would faithfully record 

 instances as they occur, and from time to time bring them to 

 one central point. 



As I commenced this notice with a brief account of the 

 death of a parrot, I will close it with an anecdote of one now 

 living, in Bow Churchyard, in the City of London. This 

 bird,* which is a female, and has been in the family several 

 years, has not yet, like most females of another race of bipeds, 

 learned to talk ; and I am told, what is to me still more 

 strange, that the female parrot cannot learn to talk : but, 

 perhaps, to make up for the want of speech, she may "think 

 the more." 



This parrot is very fond of picking a bone (not of con- 

 tention), and displayed more than ordinary sagacity in con- 

 triving means to get at one which the servant, who has a 

 great delight in trying the sagacity of the animal creation, 

 put between the wires of the cage and the food -can. Poll 

 tried every manoeuvre to obtain the dainty morsel for a con- 

 siderable time, but to no effect ; she therefore desisted from 

 the attempt, took her station in the swing, and appeared to 

 have relinquished all hope. After the lapse of a few minutes, 

 Poll descended from the swing, and approached the place 

 where the bone was laid : she very deliberately took the can 

 out of its place, and put it down on the opposite side of the 

 cage, and then picked her bone in perfect harmony. When 

 the repast was over, Poll placed the bone where she found it, 

 and, to the surprise of the servant and others who witnessed 

 the fact, put the can also in its proper place. One might 

 almost be induced to ask the question, Was that act the result 

 of instinct or reason ? 



Old Kent Road, May 14. 1836. 



[A certain individual carrion crow (Corvus Cbrone Lin.) 

 is mentioned in p. 315., as if known to be upwards of sixteen 

 years old. 



In Young's Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary, the word comix 



