438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lence. It listens attentively to any conversation that is going on, 

 and expresses its approval or astonjshment by exclaiming " Oh ! " 

 or "Ah ! " and always at the appropriate time or place. If any one 

 tells a funny story or gets off a joke, it laughs with the rest of 

 the company, although this outburst of merriment is doubtless 

 due, not so much to a humorous appreciation of what is said, as 

 to the contagion of the general hilarity. When it wants some- 

 thing, it calls its mistress by her Christian name, Marie, and, 

 if she does not come at once, calls her again with a sharp tone 

 of impatience. Once, when a firebrand fell on the hearth and 

 filled the room with smoke, it cried, "Marie! Marie!" in a 

 voice indicating extreme anxiety and alarm. This parrot is 

 a provident creature, and when taking its dinner always lays 

 aside a piece of bread and jam for its supper, thus showing 

 that it has the power of looking before and after, which 

 Shakespeare deems a peculiarly human attribute. It not only 

 sings songs correctly, but also inprovises musical compositions, 

 which it renders each time with new variations, and performs, 

 as M. Nicaise assures us, " with a taste and style and spirit that 

 might excite the envy of any pupil of the conservatory." The 

 fact that these pieces invariably close on the tonic or keynote 

 proves that all the modulations are referred to the fundamental 

 tone of the chord, and gives evidence of a musical feeling and 

 sense of harmony such as only human beings are usually supposed 

 to possess. These improvisations are whistled, and sound as 

 though they were played by a flute, the performance being uni- 

 formly preluded with runs and trills and other vocalizations. 



The parrot is an exception to the rule that the period of infancy 

 is longest in the most intelligent creatures. Its babyhood is, in 

 fact, very short, although its average life seems to be somewhat 

 longer than that of a man. It attains the full splendor of its 

 plumage and is pubescent at the early age of two, and often sur- 

 vives all the members of the human family in which it has been 

 reared, outliving even the children much younger than itself. 

 During all this time it retains its mental plasticity and progress- 

 iveness, never ceases to learn, and goes on developing its inborn 

 capacities from the beginning to the end of its prolonged exist- 

 ence. It is quite as inquisitive as the monkey, and quite as ca- 

 pable of close and continued observation. Merely through its 

 association with man it is constantly making new acquisitions of 

 knowledge, and there is no telling what might not be accom- 

 plished in this direction by systematic instruction carried on 

 through successive generations. 



If Mr. Garner's object had been to ascertain how far anfmals 

 can acquire the use of human speech and what effect such dis- 

 cipline would have in enlarging their intellectual faculties, he 



