VERT VERT ; OR PARROT GOSSIP 261 



friends at once. She would come down to me, 

 step on to my hand, climb to my shoulder, and 

 allow me to walk about with her. 



It saddened me a few months later to receive a 

 letter from her mistress announcing Polly's death, 

 on 2nd December 1909. 



I have thought since that this bird, instead of 

 being only five years old when bought, was probably 

 aged twenty-five years or more. Naturally, the 

 girl who had been sent into the market-place to 

 dispose of the bird would tell a possible buyer that 

 it was young ; the parrots one wants to buy are 

 generally stated to be five years old. However, 

 it may be that the bird grew old before its time on 

 account of its extraordinary dietary. The parrot 

 may have an adaptive stomach, still, one is inclined 

 to think that half a century of fried eggs and bacon, 

 roast pork, boiled beef and carrots, steak and onions, 

 and stewed rabbit must have put a rather heavy 

 strain on its system. ^ 



Many parrots have lived longer than Polly in 

 captivity, long as her life was ; and here it strikes 

 me as an odd circumstance that Polly's specific 

 name was bestowed on the species, the double- 

 fronted amazon, as a compliment to the distinguished 

 French ornithologist, La Valainte, who has himself 



