260 BIRDS AND MAN 



not strange that when I held out food for her she took 

 it as an insult, and when I changed my tactics and 

 offered to scratch her head she lost her temper alto- 

 gether, and when I persisted in my advances she 

 grew dangerous and succeeded in getting in several 

 nips with her huge beak, which drew blood from my 

 fingers. 



It was only then, after all my best blandishments 



had been exhausted, and when our relations were at 



their worst, that I began talking to her in Spanish, 



in a sort of caressing falsetto like a " native " girl, 



calling her " Lorito " instead of Polly, coupled with 



all the endearing epithets commonly used by the 



women of the green continent in addressing their 



green pets. Polly instantly became attentive. She 



listened and listened, coming down nearer to hsten 



better, the one eye she fixed on me shining like a 



fiery gem. But she spoke no word, Spanish or 



English, only from time to time little low inarticulate 



sounds came from her. It was evident after two 



or three days that she was powerless to recall the 



old lore, but to me it also appeared evident that some 



vague memory of a vanished time had been evoked — 



that she was conscious of a past and was trying to 



recall it. At all events the effect of the experiment 



was that her hostility vanished, and we became 



