48



The late 0. E. Cresswell — Parrots



to talk, and when it becomes a good talker gives up screaming. I

find them a better-tempered Parrot than the Grey. They are more

apt at imitating sound than the Grey Parrot. The Grey does not

pick up laughing, crying, and such like sounds as the Amazon does.

The Amazon, too, has the special power of giving the idea of a con¬

versation. You hear no word distinctly, but you would certainly say

two people were talking together. An Amazon, too, talks much more

freely before strangers than a Grey, and certainly one that really talks

rubbish is to be preferred to a Grey for that reason.”


The Macaws alone, I believe, of the tribe (save most occasionally

and exceptionally) have the power of changing their voices. My own

Illiger’s Macaw, which I hope presently to introduce to you, can call

his name “ Jerry in a clear loud voice, and then will whisper it in

the softest and most affected tones. So much for the speaking and

imitative powers of Parrots — but with which function of the brain

is this connected ? I fancy chiefly with association of ideas. I

remember long years ago, when I was in the University of Oxford,

reading a paper before an essay society upon the great part which

association of ideas has among our own intellectual faculties. I was

forcibly and interestingly reminded of my former study by Miss Lech-

mere’s instructive paper on the mental faculties of the lower animals.

With Parrots I am certain that association is powerful and accurate-

I will give two or three instances. My own Patagonian Conure some

years ago lived in the old cottage ; the stove had a valve which

squeaked abominably when opened ; the bird soon learned to imitate

this metallic noise exactly, and if he saw one approaching the stove

to put on fuel, squeaked before one had time to raise the valve. As

an instance of great accuracy of association, viz. association of a saying

with a time of play, 1 may relate the case of a Grey Parrot, the most

wonderful talker I have ever heard of, the property of a lady and gentle¬

man in Devonshire, which says “ good morning ” with the clearest

utterance, but never save in the earlier hours of the day. One more

instance from my own experience. I was last autumn in the extreme

south-west of France, where Amazon Parrots from Brazil are every¬

where seen. Outside a cottage, the inhabitants of which had apparently

gone out to work for the day and had locked it up, hung a poor Parrot



