196 SCANSORES. PSITTACID^E. 



has been the most ludicrous thing possible. She 

 sings just like a child, and I have more than once 

 thought it was a human being ; and it was ridicu- 

 lous -to hear her make what one should call a false 

 note, and then say, " Oh, la ! " and burst out laugh- 

 ing at herself, beginning again quite in another 

 key. She is very fond of singing " Buy a Broom," 

 which she says quite plainly ; but in the same 

 spirit as in calling the cat, if we say, with a view 

 to make her repeat it, " Buy a broom," she always 

 says, " Buy a brush" and then laughs, as a child 

 might do when mischievous. She often performs 

 a kind of exercise, which I do not know how to 

 describe, except by saying that it is like the lance 

 exercise. She puts her claw behind her, first on 

 one side and then on the other, then in front, and 

 round over her head, and whilst doing so, keeps 

 saying, " Come on! come on! " and, when finished, 

 says, " Bravo ! beautiful ! " and draws herself up. 

 Before I was as well acquainted with her as I 

 am now, she would stare in my face for some 

 time, and then say, "How d'ye do, ma'am?" 

 this she invariably does to strangers. One day I 

 went into the room where she was, and said, to 

 try her, "Poll, where is Payne gone?" and, to 

 my astonishment, and almost dismay, she said, 

 " Down stairs." I cannot, at this moment, re- 

 collect anything more that I can vouch for myself, 

 and I do not choose to trust to what I am told ; but 

 from what I have myself seen and heard, she has 

 almost made me a believer in transmigration.'"* 



The species alluded to in this sprightly note, 

 Mr. Jesse has not named; we may conjecture it to 

 have been the Grey African Parrot (Psittacus 



* Gleanings, p. 218. 



