198 THE ART OF TRAINING ANIMALS. 



of good powers will usually pick up this knowledge if it has an 

 opportunitj^ of frequently hearing the animals. The blue and 

 yellow macaw, though it does not readily learn words (except 

 "Jacob/') seems to have a talent for imitating the bleating of 

 sheep, the mewing of cats, and the barking of dogs, with great 

 exactness. 



It not only has the power of learning but often shows a de- 

 sire to do so. It continually repeats the syllables which it has 

 heard, and in order not to be misled in memory, endeavors to 

 cry down all sounds which disturb it. So Jeep an impression 

 do its lessons make that sometimes it dreams aloud. When 

 young its memory is so good as to retain whole verses and sen- 

 tences. Ehodiginus mentions a gray parrot which could repeat 

 the Apostles' (Treed without a slip, and was on that account 

 bought by a cardinal for a hundred crowns. 



In Scotland a species of parrot is employed to call the names 

 of the stations on the railway. Each bird is taught the name 

 of the station at which it is placed, and this name it shouts on 

 the approach of the train. 



Several birds besides parrots possess the power of talking. 

 Magpies are taught in Germany to imitate not only the human 

 voice but many striking sounds. They are taken from the nest 

 when quite young, otherwise this cannot be accomplished. A 

 clergyman in Paris is said to have had two sparrows which 

 were able to repeat the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh com- 

 mandments. It produced a highly comic effect when, in their 

 quarrels over their food, one of them would gravely admonish 

 the other—" Thou shalt not steal." 



Ravens often talk with considerable fluency. In Thugaingia 

 the traveler on entering an inn is frequently saluted with the 

 appellations, "thief, rascal," nttered by one of these birds. 

 Some trainers with a view to facilitate the utterance of articulate 

 sounds, are accustomed to cut what is called the string of the 

 tongue, an operation which certainly attains its end in some 

 measure, though ravens often speak on which it has not been 

 performed. 



