264 BIRDS AND MAN 



more to the inn, and seeing the bird in its cage in 

 the old place began to speak in praise of its beautiful 

 singing as he had heard it and remembered it so well. 

 She replied sadly that since he listened to and 

 wanted to buy it an unaccountable change had come 

 over her bird. It was silent for a spell, perhaps 

 sick, but when it resumed singing its voice had 

 changed and all the beautiful notes which everyone 

 admired were lost. The great man expressed his 

 regret, and went away chuckling at his deliciously 

 funny joke. 



The ordinary talking parrot is no more to me than 

 the ordinary or average canary, piping his thin expres- 

 sionless notes ; he is a prodigy I am pleased not to 

 know. On the other hand there are numerous 

 authenticated cases of parrots possessed of really 

 surprising powers, and it was doubtless the mimicking 

 powers of such birds of genius which suggested such 

 fictions as that of the Tota Kuhami in the East ; and 

 in Europe, Gresset's lively tale of Vert Vert and the 

 convent nuns. 



It was perhaps a parrot of this rare kind which 

 played so important a part in the early history of 

 South America. It is nothing but a legend of the 

 Guarani nation, which inhabit Paraguay, neverthe- 

 less I do believe that we have here an account 



