TALKING BIRDS. 103 



say ; but I did not get much good out of the 

 remainder of the meeting ; I was too much 

 amused at my blunder. 



A neighbor of mine had a parrot which 

 possessed remarkable talking powers and was 

 extremely jealous of any attention paid to 

 her mistress by a stranger. The fact is, she 

 wanted to put the ban on all visitors, and 

 would sometimes attack them when she was 

 given the freedom of the room. Of course, she 

 could say very pitifully, " Polly wants a crack- 

 er," with a peculiar stress on the last syllable 

 of the last word. 



When a visitor came whom she did not 

 fancy, she would often cry in a loud voice, " Eat- 

 tle-trap ! rattle-trap ! " as fast as she could re- 

 peat it, so that she had to be hushed before 

 the conversation could proceed. Some of her 

 mistress's callers seemed to amuse rather than 

 anger her, and so she would break into one 

 peal of laughter after another to drown the 

 talk. She was very fond of her mistress, and 

 would often perch on her shoulder and caress 

 her, saying, ^' 0-o-h ! o-o-h ! " in her most affec- 

 tionate tones. 



When her mistress stepped into another 

 part of the house or over to her neighbor's, 

 the parrot would call, ^' Phibby ! Ph-i-i-b-b-y ! " 



