PEETTY POLL. 



It is an error of youth to despiso parrots for their much 

 talking. Loquacity isn't always a sign of empty-heaclecl- 

 ness, nor is silence a sure proof of weight and wisdom. 



Biologists, for their part, know better than that. By 

 common consent, they rank the parrot group as the very 

 head and crown of bird creation. Not, of course, 

 because pretty Poll can talk (in a state of nature, parrots 

 only chatter somewhat meaninglessly to one another), but 

 because the group display on the whole, all round, a 

 greater amount of intelligence, of cleverness, and of 

 adaptability to circumstances than any other birds, 

 including even their cunning and secretive rivals, the 

 ravens, the jackdaws, the crows, and the magpies. 



What are the efficient causes of this exceptionally 

 high intelligence in parrots? Well, Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer, I believe, was the first to point out the 

 intimate connection that f.dsts throughout the animal 

 world between mental development and the power of 

 grasping an object all round so as to know exactly its 

 shape and its tactile properties. The possession of an 

 effective prehensile organ— a hand or its equivalent — 



