Birds. 147 



Ralph, tell me your adventures : " then the obedient bird 

 would bend his head " askance," and make a confused noise 

 with his bill, as if recounting his travels, while Downes would 

 stoop as if to listen. A stranger once asked " mine host " 

 what the gull was saying to him : Downes answered, that 

 " he had just arrived from Whitehaven, and brought him a 

 message." Whether believed or not, I cannot pretend to say. 

 The House of Keys (the legislative assembly of the Isle of 

 Man) passed an act which entailed a penalty of 51. on the 

 destruction of a gull, lest poor Ralph might fall an indiscri- 

 minate victim. — J. Murray. Jan. 20. [See the next page.] 



Ralph the Raven's ejaculation of " What's the matter 

 with you?" to the baker he had wounded and made to bleed, 

 reminds me of a parrot kept, perhaps ten years ago, by the 

 Rev. G. R. Leathes, at Shropham Hall, Norfolk. Poll the 

 parrot was out of its cage, and recreating on the lawn, when 

 a playful puppy belonging to the house came in contact with 

 it. An abundance of sallyings and dairyings and conflicts 

 took place between them, to the diversion of all who observed 

 them, till the parrot had become tired of the exhaustless 

 sportiveness of its more youthful playmate, the puppy. The 

 parrot, to free itself from farther assailance, flew to the top of 

 its cage, or upon a window sill, and then and there, in most 

 complaisant pity, exclaimed, " Poor old dog!" a remark suf- 

 ficiently apposite to induce the idea that the parrot's utter- 

 ance of this sentence, at this time, was the result of a degree 

 of reasoning. I did not witness this fact myself: it was told 

 me by one who did, Mr. George Woolsey. — J. D. 



Common Sea-Gull. — I have often been struck with the 

 familiar and playful habits of the sea-gull. It will bear con- 

 finement in gardens without attempting to escape, although 

 at full liberty to do so, returning from its occasional flights to 

 its place of imprisonment. There are several specimens in 

 the Zoological Garden in the Regent's Park ; and, on a fine 

 summer's day, these gentlemen may be seen very gravely 

 amusing themselves in picking up the pebbles and dropping 

 them on each other's toes ! This I have frequently observed. 

 Coleridge somewhere, in his wild and magical " Rime of the 

 Antient Mariner " says of the albatross, whom he introduces 

 as a bird of omen, — 



" At length did cross an albatross, 

 Thorough the fog it came ; 

 As if it had been a Christian soul, 

 We hail'd it in God's name. 



" It ate the food it ne'er had eat, 

 And round and round it flew ; 

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