230 THE CUCKOO. 



search of its natural and favourite food. At the ap- 

 proach of winter the cuckoo disappears, and some au- 

 thors imagine it conceals itself in hollow trees, and re- 

 mains in a kind of torpid state, until roused to animation 

 by the warmth of the sun : whilst others, with greater 

 probability, assert, that it regularly migrates into a 

 more genial clime. Brisson, the Naturalist, assures us 

 that there are no less than twenty-eight different kinds 

 of this bird, but whether they bear any analogy to the 

 English cuckoo, I cannot take upon me to say ; he 

 tells us that in Brasil they have one which makes such 

 a horrible noise, that the forests absolutely ring with 

 their sound. 



THE PARROT AND ITS AFFINITIES. 



Of all foreign birds the parrot is to us best known ; 

 it is at once both beautiful and docile, and with very 

 little difficulty is taught to speak. A grave writer as- 

 sures us that one of these birds, at command, would 

 repeat a whole sonnet from Petrarch ; and a distiller, 

 who had been greatly injured by the malevolence of 

 an informer that lived opposite to him, taught his par- 

 rot the ninth commandment, which the bird was conti- 

 nually repeating, to the entertainment of those neigh-- 

 bours who were acquainted with the ungenerous part 

 the despicable man had played. 



Willoughby tells us, that a parrot, belonging to King 

 Henry the Seventh, who then resided at Westminster, 

 in his palace by the Thames, had learned many words 

 from the passengers who took water at that place. One 

 day, sporting on his perch, the poor bird fell into the 

 stream, at the same time called, as loud as he could, 

 *' A boat ! twenty pounds for a boat !" A waterman, 

 hearing the cry, made to the place where the parrot 



