THE PIE KIND. 



525 



ing three times from under the stove. Won- 

 dering at so extraordinary a cry in winter 

 time, the servants ran and drew the willow 

 logs from the furnace, and in the midst of one 

 of them saw something move) wherefore, 

 taking an axe, they opened the hole, and 

 thrusting in their hands, first they plucked 

 out nothing but feathers ; afterwards they 

 got hold of a living animal ; and this was the 

 cuckoo that had waked so very opportunely 

 for its own safety. It was, indeed," continues 

 our historian, " brisk and lively, but wholly 

 naked and bare of feathers, and without any 

 winter provision in its hole. This cuckoo 

 the boys kept two years afterwards alive in 

 the stove; but whether it repaid them with a 

 second song, the author of the tale has not 

 thought lit to inform us." 



The most probable opinion on this subject 

 is, that as quails and woodcocks shift their 

 habitations in winter, so also does the cuckoo ; 

 but to what country it retires, or whether it 

 has been ever seen on its journey, are ques- 

 tions that I am wholly incapable of resolv- 

 ing. 



Of this bird there are many kinds in vari- 

 ous parts of the world, not only differing in 

 their colours, but their size. Brisson makes 

 not less than twenty-eight sorts of them ; but 

 what analogy they bear to our English cuckoo, 

 I will not take upon me to determine. He 

 talks of one, particularly of Brasil, as making 

 a most horrible noise in the forests ; which. 

 as it should seem, must be a very different 

 note from that by which our bird is distin- 

 guished at home. 



CHAPTER CIV. 



OF THE PARROT, AND ITS AFFINITIES. 



THE Parrot is the best known among us 

 of all foreign birds, as it unites the greatest 

 beauty with the greatest docility. Its voice 

 also is more like a man's than that .of any 

 other ; the raven is too hoarse, and the jay 

 and magpie too shrill, to resemble the truth ; 

 the parrot's note is of the true pitch, and 

 capable of a number of modulations that even 

 some of our orators might wish in vain to 

 imitate. 



The ease with which this bird is taught to 

 speak, and the great number of words which 

 it is capable of repeating, are no less surpris- 

 ing. We are assured by a grave writer, that 

 one of these was taught to repeat a whole 

 sonnet from Petrarch ; and that I may not be 

 wanting in my instance, I have seen a parrot 

 belonging to a distiller, who had suffered 

 pretty largely in his circumstances from an 

 informer who lived opposite him, very ridicu- 

 lously employed. This bird was taught to 

 pronounce the ninth commandment, TTiou 

 shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour, 

 with a very clear, loud, articulate voice. The 

 bird was generally placed in its cage over 





against the informer's house, and delighted 

 the whole neighbourhood with its persevering 

 exhortations. 



Willoughby tells a story of a parrot, which 

 is not so dull as those usually brought up 

 when this bird's facility of talking happens to 

 be the subject. "A parrot belonging to King 

 Henry the Seventh, who then resided at 

 Westminster, in his palace by the riverThames, 

 had learned to talk many words from the 

 passengers as they happened to take the 

 water. One day, sporting on its perch, the 

 poor bird fell into the water, at the same 

 time crying out, as loud as he could, Ji boat ! 

 twenty pounds for a boat ! A waterman, who 

 happened to be near, hearing the cry, made 

 to the place where the parrot was floating, 

 and taking him up, restored him to the king. 

 As it seems the bird was a favourite, the man 

 insisted that he ought to have a reward rather 

 equal to his services than his trouble : and, 

 as the parrot had fried twenty pounds, he 

 said the king was bound in honour to 

 grant it. The king at last agreed to leave 

 it to the parrot's own determination, which 



