226 THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



orchard in search of food, send out a scouting 

 party to reconnoitre the region and see that ' all 

 is well.' Sometimes a second party is sent. If 

 the report is favourable, the whole band advance 

 and plunder the field in short order. These birds 

 are exceedingly wary and intelligent, and seldom 

 make mistakes. But ' if man once succeeds in 

 killing one of them, they become so prudent and 

 watchful that they henceforward baffle all strata- 

 gems ' (20). A short time ago a parrot at Wash- 

 ington, New Jersey, saved the life of its owner by 

 summoning the neighbours to his relief. Cries of 

 ' Murder !' ' Help !' ' Come quick !' coming from 

 the home of the parrot, attracted the attention of 

 neighbours, who ran to the house to find out the 

 cause. * They found the owner of the parrot lying 

 on the floor unconscious, bleeding from a great 

 gash in his neck. He had been repairing the 

 ceiling, and had fallen and struck his head against 

 the stove. It required six stitches to close the 

 v/ound, and the surgeon said that in only a few 

 minutes the injured man would have been dead. 

 A few years ago this parrot's screams awakened 

 its owner in time to arouse his neighbours and 

 save them from a fire which started in the house 

 next door.' 



A friend of mine, who is thoroughly reliable, tells 

 me that when he was a student at the University 

 of Michigan a few years ago one of the professors 

 of zoology there had a dog who was used by the 

 department for experiments in digestion. The dog 

 was compelled to wear a tube opening downward 



