Miscellaneous. 385 



which I bought and kept alive for some time) about 18 inches long, 

 and sundry bears, lions, monkeys, racoons, and other animals ; while 

 all the rooms of the house itself are given up to birds — mostly of 

 the parrot kind ; and the screaming and shrieking is terrific. Every 

 now and then there is a perfect avalanche of the little green parro- 

 quets from Australia ; and on one occasion Mr. Jamrach had 3000 

 of them in his bed-rooms. Parrots that can talk fetch a high price ; 

 so we rarely buy them, as we don't want pets. Moreover they 

 very soon lose their power of talking when they are out in the 

 woods ; but sometimes they learn to imitate other sounds. At my 

 house in Surrey the jackdaws build in boxes placed for them in the 

 gables ; and a grey parrot who flies about has learnt to imitate them 

 exactly, while one of the cockatoos can imitate the clucking of a 

 hen so cleverly that no one would conceive that it was not the fowl 

 herself. A large Amazonian parrot, who has been at Northrepps 

 Hall for twenty years, used to be a first-rate talker. He it was 

 who originated the plan of turning the parrots out ; for having 

 escaped from his cage, he remained in the oak and beech trees for 

 nearly three months, and only came back when the winter set in, 

 but looking so magnificent that the idea suggested itself of trying 

 the effect of liberty on other parrots as well. After he returned, he 

 amused us very much by walking up and down on the sill of the 

 dining-room window, repeating the phrases of anxious entreaty that 

 had been addressed to him by the maidservants to induce him to 

 come in, exactly imitating their different voices as well as words. 

 On one occasion he nearly frightened a poor woman out of her wits 

 by suddenly plumping down on the top of her head as she was 

 walking along the road. On two or three occasions, strangers, 

 when approaching the house, have been perfectly astounded by 

 hearing what they took for the voices of invisible human beings 

 issuing from the trees over their heads. One of his favourite phrases 

 still is, " I have no wife, but I have to care for my mother." 



One of the young cockatoos that was born in the acacia trees dis- 

 appeared last spring, but returned the other day in a beggarly and 

 ruinous condition, having evidently been nearly starved, but soon 

 recovered his good looks. It is curious what could have become 

 of him, and how he found his way back after so long an absence. 

 The same thing has occurred with others. One of the large cock- 

 atoos deserted my place in Surrey for several months, and was 

 continually seen associating with a flock of rooks some miles away, 

 but at length returned. On one occasion a flock of our parrots flew 

 to a place full twenty-five miles away, and eleven of them were 

 shot. Afterwards five cockatoos were shot all together in the same 

 way. 



It is curious what friendships arise between birds, some of which 

 belong to different species. A parroquet and a green parrot were 

 perfectly inseparable ; and so, too, at my house in Surrey, I had at 

 one time a flock of eleven grey parrots ; but ten of them having got 

 killed, the survivor associated himself with some cockatoos, and for 

 the last few years has invariably flown about in their company. 



Ajin.d) Mag. N, Hist, Ser.4. Vol.n. 27 



