76 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



Cjit ^kml 



ccoRDixG to some naturalists, 

 there are more tlian one hun- 

 dred and seventy species of par- 

 rots. ^Thej are a notoriously 

 noisy set, the whole race of them. I never 

 took a very great fancy to them ; and I think 

 it quite likely that, if I had done so in early 

 days, I should have been quite cured of my 

 fondness by this time. Some years ago, there 

 lived on the opposite side of the street from 

 the house where I resided in the city, a young 

 lady, who seemed to have been remarkably 

 fond of pets. She always had more or less 

 of them. There was no harm in that, you 

 all say. N'o, that is true enough. But the 

 worst of it was, this lady always contrived to 

 have the noisiest kind of pets. Every thin^ 

 she petted, for some reason or other, made a 



