BIRDS IN TRAINING 25 



pose with its tongue more quickly than one 

 could have done it oneself, although some of 

 the beads were hardly bigger than pins' heads. 

 It is very hard to understand how the bird 

 could have been taught this trick, and it 

 seemed to me the most wonderful of all. 



It is true the final performance looked 

 more wonderful, because this consisted in 

 the parrot being told to pick out the ace 

 from several cards which were put, face 

 down, on the table. It turned them up one 

 by one, and when it found the ace, took that 

 card and showed it to its master. But I was 

 told that this trick was done by signs ; the 

 owner raised his finger when the bird had 

 got the right card, and he told me that the 

 Indian native who had trained the parrot 

 did not even do this, but sat with his arms 

 crossed and gave the sign with one of his 

 toes, which the bird watched all the time. 



The parrot's owner told me he had seen 

 these tricks done by other parrots, but had 

 never met with one which knew them all, 

 and it must have been an exceptionally 

 clever bird, with a very good memory, to have 

 learnt as much as this. These parrakeets 



