518 EYELID OF THE KINGED PAEKAKEET. 



The poor birds literally laid them down and died, the deck being strewn with their elegant 

 forms. Polly, I am thankful to say, was blessed with an excellent constitution, and her 

 nurse, a kind-hearted weather-beaten sailor, loved her, and she lay in his bosom and was 

 so kept warm and comfortable through the cold. 



On Polly's arrival at Plymouth, her nurse, being obliged to attend to other matters, 

 left her to her own resources in an old cage in which she usually slept, when her horizon 

 was suddenly darkened by a cloud of bum-boat women from the shore, one of whom, 

 seeing her defenceless situation, seized upon her, like Glumdalclitch upon Gulliver, and 

 conveyed the delicate little creature to her coarse bosom. Fortunately for Polly, she 

 uttered a little sound, which was heard by her nurse, who, seizing the woman by the 

 shoulders, rescued Polly from the vile embrace. 



After this contretemps, Polly was put into a rickety old cage, with two buns for her 

 nourishment, and sent all by herself in the train to London. On her arrival there she 

 was forwarded to a person who had formerly been confidential servant to my wife. One 

 morning, this good person, hearing a great chattering downstairs, looked in at her back- 

 parlour door, and there, to her infinite surprise, she saw Polly seated upon the cat's back, 

 chattering away at no allowance, while pussy was majestically marching round the room. 



Soon after this we came to London, and then saw for the first time our little pet, which 

 soon began to know and love me. Her favourite place is on my shoulder, where at lunch- 

 time she delights to sit and digest after having pecked from my plate whatever she most 

 fancies. If the weather be cold and her feet chilly, she pulls herself up by my whiskers, 

 placing herself on the top of my head, which being partially bald is warm to her little 

 patter. Her favourite resort is generally on my shoulder, and whilst sitting there, her 

 manner of attracting attention is by giving my ear a little peck. 



Whenever I come home, and wherever Polly may be, no sooner do I put my key in 

 the lock, or sometimes before I have quite reached the door, than Polly gives a peculiar 

 shrill call, and then it is known for certain that I am in the house. Even when I go to 

 bed, though it may be at one or two in the morning, on my entering the room, however 

 gently, Polly knows I am there, and although apparently asleep and with two thick 

 shawls wrapped round her cage, excluding all light, she immediately utters one little note 

 of welcome. 



She has a peculiar way of contracting her eye when preparing to do or actually doing 

 anything mischievous : when so contracted, the pupil of the eye appears as it were a mere 

 speck of jet I believe that her fondness for and her sympathetic attachment to me was 

 something more than mere instinct, for if I think strangely of her at any time, even in 

 the middle of the night, she is sure to answer me with her own little note, her eyes 

 remaining shut and her head tucked in her shoulder as though she were fast asleep." 



I have noticed the peculiar movement of the eye referred to in this narrative, and 

 must add that the entire eyelid partakes of this curious contraction, the bird possessing 

 the power of circularly contracting the lid, at first quite smoothly, but afterwards with a 

 multitude of tiny radiating wrinkles or puckers, until at last the aperture is reduced 

 to the size of a small pinhole. It looks, to use a familiar illustration, as if the eyelid 

 were made of India-rubber, and could be contracted or relaxed at will. 



Perhaps this power of reducing the aperture of vision may be given to the bird for the 

 purpose of enabling it to see the better, and may have some connexion with the united 

 microscopic and telescopic vision which all birds possess in a greater or less degree. 



This species of Parrakeet is not very good at talking, though it can learn to repeat a 

 few words and is very apt at communicating its own ideas by a language of gesture and 

 information especially its own. It is, however, very docile, and will soon learn any lesson 

 that may be imposed, even that most difficult task to a Parrot remaining silent while 

 any one is speaking. One of my pupils had one of these birds, of which he was 

 exceedingly fond ; and finding that although his body was in the schoolroom below, his 

 mind was with his Polly in the room above, I allowed her to stay in the room on condition 

 that the lesson should be properly learned. At first, however, Polly used to screech so 

 continually that all lessons were stopped for the time, and I was fearful that Polly must 



