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but no, he gradually got worse in this respect, and at last looked

the veriest scarecrow, though I had introduced him to a lady of

his own species that had been given to me some time before, and

her society for a time seemed as if it might wean him from his

evil habit.


“Pinto” was the name we had given to the lady in

question in honour of the friend who had made me a present of

her, which reminds me of a funny misprint that was made in

a paper I was contributing to a monthly magazine. I had

written : “ The first bird of this species that I had seen was

presented to me by a Portuguese friend,” but the compositor,

whose thoughts were evidently running on his dinner, turned the

last word into “ fried,” and when I corrected the error and sent

back the slip to the press reviser, the proof was returned to me

with a query mark against the word “ fiend,” which was the

compositor’s second attempt to make me say the thing that was

not ; but the sentence appeared as I originally intended when

the article came out in the magazine for which it had been

written.


Needless to say, I was much delighted when I received a

letter from Senhor Pinto asking me to accept a rare Parrot from

the upper regions of the Amazon, a beautifully coloured bird

about as bigas the African Grey Parrot with the red tail. It had

a curious habit, he said, of erecting the feathers at the back of

the neck and head into a kind of Elizabethan ruff, which gave it

a very singular appearance.


I accepted with effusion, as the P'rench say, and the

Parrot arrived in due course. Naturally, we were all curious to

see the strange bird, and the whole family crowded round to

watch me open its travelling cage.


“ Pinto,” as we immediately named the Parrot, or as we

had done in anticipation of its coming among us, I forget which,

immediately stepped out upon the table, shook itself, and then

gazing calmly round upon the assembled multitude, ejaculated

“ Well,” with a distinctly interrogative inflection, as much as to

say, “ What are you all staring at, I should like to know ? ”


There was plenty of seed in the travelling cage, but I

thought the Parrot might be thirsty, so I offered it some water in

a cup, of which it took a few sips, and, dear me ! what a funny

bill it had ! The lower mandible projected beyond the upper

one, which rested upon it, for quite half an inch, and had the

appearance of a little shovel or rather scoop.


When Pinto had satisfied his thirst he put his bill on the



