36 THE SPEAKING PARROTS. 



Thus we see domestic animals spoilt — dogs, good tempered and 

 obedient by nature., changed into wicked biting curs ; cats, 

 deceitful and treacherous ; parrots, stupid, ill-tempered, and in- 

 sufferable screamers. This is the more to be regretted because 

 a well-trained animal of any kind is undoubtedly an estimable 

 companion to man, capable of being to him, under certain 

 circumstances, a friend in the fullest sense of the word. I 

 will, therefore, endeavour to give directions how to obtain this 

 most desirable result. 



Up to the present, experience has given us no tokens by which 

 we may know at once with certainty whether a bird is more 

 or less talented. Of course, the eye of a connoisseur may to 

 some extent judge whether a parrot will turn out well, and 

 prove gifted, easily tamed, and teachable ; cheerfulness, quick- 

 ness, a bright shining eye, attention to all that is going on 

 &;c., show the probability that we have "a good bird" before 

 us ; but we cannot be quite certain of it, because there are 

 many examples extant in which these signs have proved 

 deceptive, and the parrot has been stubborn and stupid ; whereas 

 another, which sat dull at first, has afterwards developed into 

 an excellent speaker. Difference of sex may in this respect be 

 regarded as unimportant, and, in spite of many opinions 

 to the contrary, makes no difference in talent ; certainly, up 

 to the present, nothing is known in support of such opinions 

 as regards most of the large kinds. It is probably very 

 generally known that the larger parrots live to a great age ; 

 in a state of freedom probably all, with the exception of those 

 which fall a victim to accident, and in captivity all those which 

 enjoy suitable treatment. Naturally, the older a bird when 

 caught, the more difficult it is to acclimatise and train, and the 

 first thing to remember, in buying a bird which one wishes to 

 teach to speak, is that the younger it is when purchased, the 

 more amenable it is to teaching. Yet many cases are known in 

 which the so-called " old screamers," that have little value in 

 the trade, have become excellent speakers, though, of course, 

 only after they have been years in captivity. As an example 

 I may mention the Grey Parrot belonging to Mr. Neubauer, 

 principal of the Grammar School at Eawitsch, which, when 

 nearly twenty years of age, after being in his possession 

 three years, began to speak, and learnt more than two hundred 

 words, in three languages — German, Polish, and French. Every 

 teachable and easily tamed parrot becomes naturally more and 



