&4 THE PARROT. 



man, gave for a Parrot five hundred dollars. This 

 bird could repeat a great number of sentences, answer 

 many questions, and sing or whistle a variety of songs- 

 While singing or whistling, it beat time with all the 

 accuracy of an experienced musician. If any mistake 

 was made in the performance, it would go back to 

 the place of the error, correct it, and then sing the 

 tune through with wonderful exactness. This singular 

 bird could express her wants in such a manner as to 

 be well understood by the family. 



Her exact age was not known, but it was certain 

 that she was upwards of thirty years old when she 

 died. 



Colonel O'Kelly was repeatedly offered five hun- 

 dred guineas a year for the use of this bird, by those 

 who wished to carry her about for public exhibition : 

 but out of tenderness to his favourite, he constantly re- 

 fused to let her go at any price. 



This bird was so celebrated in London, that when 

 she died, an account of her death, with a sketch of 

 her life, was given in the London Evening Post. 



Dr. Goldsmith says, that a Parrot, which belonged 

 to king Henry the Seventh, having been kept in a 

 room next the river Thames, had learned to repeat 

 many words and sentences from the boatmen and 

 passengers on the river. One day while it was sport- 

 ing on the perch, which happened to be over the river, 

 it unluckily fell into the water. The bird no sooner 

 found itself in this situation, than it called aloud, " A 

 boat ! twenty pounds for a boat !" A boatman, hap- 

 pening to be near the place where the Parrot was* 

 floating, immediately took it up, and carried it to the 



