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The individual from whi.-i, the illustration IB taken, IB a very great favorite in the houa 

 he belong*. i--iu_- u.ked upon n,.,t,. in the iijit of a human being *^n a bint Her 

 birthday is *,TMpu!o,,sU K. ,,i, an ,i on that auspicious morning she IB always presented with a 



-I" 1 -' ' -' : -' ' ''-'. llil> :' >..,.-. 1 j ,,...., |, u , , : ,. ., I,, - .. .;< .,i 



ini. -mi K she is a most affectionate little creature, and cannot bear that any of her espedal 

 fri.-n.ls s| 1( ,uld leave the room without bidding farewell; and I once saw her let up such a 

 screech because h.-r mistress happened to go away without speaking to her, that she had to be 

 taken out of her cage and comforted before she would settle qui. 



Her owner has kindly pre- 

 seiit.-d I- me tin : kjffl i:._, 

 account of the bird : 



" You ask me to tell you 

 something about my little 

 1'olly. Perhups the simplest 

 plan will be to give a sketch 

 of her history, premising that 

 although I believe my littl- 

 pet to be a male, still, as I 

 love her so tenderly, I alwa\s 

 use the feminine pronoun in 

 speaking of and to her. 



"Polly's birth-place was 

 Trincomalee, and she was 

 brought over to America by 

 one of my wife's sons, an 

 officer in the navy, being ac- 

 companied hither by a vast 

 retinue of Parrakeets, almost 

 all of which fell victims to the 

 rough, cold weather which 

 they had to encounter, to- 

 gether with the change of 

 climate. The poor birds liter- 

 ally laid them down and died, 

 the deck being strewn with 

 their elegant forms. Polly, I 

 am thankful to say, was 

 blessed with an excellent con- 



stitution, and her nurse, a kind-hearted, weather-beaten sailor, lov.-d h.-i, and she lay in 

 his bosom and was so kept wann and comfortable through the cold. 



"On Polly's arrival at Portsmouth, her nurse, being obliged to attend to other matters, 

 left her to her own resources in an old cage in which she usually slept, when her horizon was 

 suddenly darkened by a cloud of bum-boat women from the shore, one of whom, seeing her 

 defenceless situation, seized upon her, like Glumdalrlitch u]M>n Gulliver, and conveyed the 

 delirate little creature to her coarse bosom. Fortunately for Polly, she uttered a little sound, 

 which was heard by her nurse, who, seizing the woman by the shoulders, rescued Polly from 

 the vile embrace. 



"After this contretemp*, Polly was put into A rickety old cage, with two buns for her 

 nourishment, and sent all by herself in th- train to Washington. On her arrival there 

 she was forwarded to a person who had formerly been confidential servant to my wife. One 

 morning, this good person, hearing a great chattering down-stairs, looked in at her back- 

 parlor door, and th-p-. to her infinite surprise, she saw Polly anted upon the catfs back. 

 chartering away at no allowance, while pussy was majestically marching round the room. 



BL1OKD 



