THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 205 



dogs and orders them about, coaxes the cats or scolds 

 them. He has the names of all the other birds at his 

 tongue's end, and answers with the right one at the 

 sound of their voices, never confusing them. He can 

 alter his voice from the tenderest caressing tone to a 

 gruff command, ' Present arms! ' or the like, all in tones 

 astonishingly human and with clear pronunciation. 

 He recites verses and praises himself when he has not 

 made any mistakes ; but if he does, he says, ^ That's not 

 it, stupid ! ' He uses every greeting at the right time of 

 day, and can apply everything he knows with propri- 

 ety. He can count correctly up to eight." * Such ex- 

 amples shows that with parrots something more than 

 mere blind imitation is involved, since such highly en- 

 dowed specimens as this one can make the proper con- 

 nection between the acoustic symbol and its mental im- 

 port, but great caution must be exercised to avoid exag- 

 gerated interpretations of their performances. The gray 

 parrot of the African traveller Soyaux showed a greater 

 ability to learn : " An old bird w^hen caught, he 

 never was thoroughly tamed, but was greatly admired 

 on account of his size. He talked very little, only rarely 

 pronouncing the word ^ kusu,' which is the native desig- 

 nation for parrots, but his great forte was whistling, in 

 which I have never seen him excelled. Not that he 

 "was so specially skilful in whistling whole songs, but 

 the modulation was wonderful — as strong, full, and 

 clear as a bell, like high organ notes. He would roll 

 up and down the scale, skipping a note and sounding 

 it after the succeeding one. His memory of ^African 

 bird notes was remarkable, and he imitated perfectly 

 the call of plovers, cranes, etc." \ 



* K. Russ, Die sprechenden Papageien, p. 29. f Ibid., p. 31. 



