THE ASH-COLOURED PARROT. 12? 



Singular attachment Anecdotes. 



bird never left her chamber. The first thing he 

 did every day, was to pay her a visit ; and this 

 tender condolence lasted the whole time of the 

 cure, when he again returned to his former calm 

 and settled attachment. Yet this strong predi- 

 lection for the girl seems to have been more 

 directed to her office in the kitchen, than to her 

 person ; for when another cook-maid succeeded 

 her, the parrot showed the same degree of fond- 

 ness to the new comer, the very first day. 



The society which the parrot forms with man 

 is, from its use of language, more intimate and 

 pleasing than what the monkey can claim from 

 its antic imitation of our gestures and actions. 

 It highly diverts and amuses us ; it takes part in 

 conversation, it laughs, it breathes tender expres- 

 sions, or mimics grave discourse ; and its words, 

 uttered indiscriminately, please by their incon- 

 gruity, and sometimes excite surprise by their 

 aptness. Willoughby tells us of a parrot, which, 

 when a person said to it, " Laugh, Poll, laugh," 

 laughed accordingly, and the instant after 

 screamed out, " What a fool, to make me 

 laugh !" Another, which had grown old with its 

 master, shared with him the infirmities of age. 

 Being accustomed to hear scarcely any thing but 

 the words, ({ I am sick ;" when a person asked 

 it, " How d'ye do, Poll?" " I am sick," it replied 

 in a melancholy tone, stretching itself along, 

 " I am sick." 



Goldsmith relates, that a parrot belonging to 



