HISTORY OF 



Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neigh- 

 bour, 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 exhor- 

 tations. 



Willoughby tells a story of a parrot, which is 

 not so dull as those usually brought up when the 

 bird's facility of talking happens to be the sub- 

 ject. " A parrot belonging to King Henry the 

 Seventh, who then resided at Westminster, in his 

 palace by the river Thames, had learned to talk 

 many words from the passengers as they happen- 

 ed to take 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, A 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, re- 

 stored 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 cried 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 the bird 

 hearing, cried out, Give the knave a groat." 



The parrot, which is so common as a foreign 

 bird with us, is equally so as an indigenous bird in 

 the climates where it is produced. The forests 

 swarm with them; and the rook is not better 

 known with us than the parrot in almost every 

 part of the East and West Indies. Jt is in vain 



