536 THJE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



after the meaning of the soug of the birds was learned. But 

 when these birds, which are more usually isolated — whence they 

 have been named Fringilla codehs, or celibates — hop around our 

 houses and also utter their amorous trills at another than the 

 mating season, they are evidently not calling the female. Should 

 we not then seek to determine by the tone whether their call, 

 which is always the same, is amorous or not ? 



In countries where flocks of turkeys are raised one can learn 

 very quickly from their gobblings when they have captured a 

 hare. If they meet him standing still or lying down, they form 

 in a circle around him, and, putting their heads down, repeat con- 

 tinually their peculiar cries. The hare remains quiet, and it is 

 sometimes possible to take him up, terrorized as he is in the midst 

 of the black circle of gobbling beaks and heads. The language 

 of the turkeys is at that time incontestably significant. It is war 

 like, and similar to that of the males when they are fighting. In 

 the present instance, they have joined for war, and they make it 

 on the frightened hare. 



My Jaco, like all parrots, which are excellent imitators, pro- 

 nounces a few words and repeats them over and over again. Such 

 birds amuse us, because the words they know sometimes happen 

 to be ludicrously fitting. A bird of this kind had been struck by 

 the note sounded by the wind blowing into a room through a crack 

 in the glass-work whenever a certain door was opened ; and he 

 had become so perfect in his imitation that they sometimes, on 

 hearing the noise, went to shut the door when it was not open. 

 Jaco formerly belonged to a very pious old lady who was accus- 

 tomed to say her litanies with another person. He had caught 

 the words " Pray for us " in the invocations to the several saints, 

 and said them so well as sometimes to deceive his learned mistress, 

 and cause her to think she was saying her litanies with two col- 

 leagues. When Jaco was out of food, and any one passed by him, 

 he would say, " My poor Cocotte ! " or " My poor rat ! " in an arch, 

 mawkish, protracted tone that indicated very clearly what he 

 wanted, and that his drinking-cup was empty. There was no 

 doubt in the house as to his meaning ; and whenever one heard 

 it he said, " He has nothing to eat." He was exceedingly fond of 

 fresh pits of apples and pears, and I was in the habit of collect- 

 ing them and keeping them to give him. So, whenever, as I 

 came near him, I put my hand into my pocket .he never failed 

 to say, " Poor Cocco ! " in a supplicating tone which it was im- 

 possible to mistake. A sugar-plum is a choice morsel to him. 

 He can tell what it is from a distance when I hold it out in 

 my fingers ; and when I give it to him he can not restrain him- 

 self if it has been any considerable time since he has had the 

 delicacy. Usually, after having made the first motion to get it. 



