IMITATION AND MIMICRY. 339 



him the infirmities of age ; and being accustomed to 

 hear very frequently repeated the words " I am 

 sick" (Je suis malade), when a person said to it, 

 " How do you do, Poll ? " (Quastu, Perroquet, qu'as 

 tu), it replied, in a doleful tone, " I am sick," 

 stretching itself the while over the fire, (Je suis ma- 

 lade*). " The noble Philip Marmix, of St. Aide- 

 gond," says Clusius, " had a parrot whom I have 

 often heard laugh like a man, when he was bidden to 

 do so by the bystanders, in t'nese words, 4 Laugh, 

 parrot, laugh (Riez, perroquet, riez). Yea, which 

 was more wonderful, it would presently add, as if it 

 had been endowed with reason, ' What a great fool 

 to make me laugh!' (0 le grand so/, qui me faict 

 rz'Tv), which it was wont to repeat twice or thricef." 

 It would be easy to fill a volume with such anec- 

 dotes of parrots and other speaking birds, though 

 many of them are evidently much over-coloured. 

 We shall only add one more, on the respectable 

 authority of Mr. Syme, who tells us he " went, one 

 morning, with a friend, to see a collection of birds 

 belonging to a gentleman in Antigua-street, Edin- 

 burgh, and among these were some very fine star- 

 lings ; one in particular, which cost five guineas. 

 Breakfast was ready before we entered the room. 

 When the bird was produced, it flew to its master's 

 hand, and distinctly pronounced, ' Good morning, 

 Sir, breakfast breakfast.' It afterwards hopped 

 to the table, examined every cup, and, while thus 

 employed, it occasionally repeated, ' Breakfast 

 breakfast bread and butter for Jack tea, tea 

 bread for Jack pretty Jack pretty Jack.' One 

 thing we observed was this, it often said the same 

 word or sentence twice over, perhaps in imitation of 

 the person by whom it had been taught J." 



* Oiseaux, Art. Le Perroquet Cendre. 



t Atrebat. exotic, fol. Raphelengii, 1065. 



J British Song Birds, p. 63. 



