THE GRAY PARROT. 



391 



upper part of the breast there is a collar of yellow, and with this exception, the whole of the 

 face, neck, back, breast, and abdomen are rich scarlet. Tlie wings are green above, changing 

 to violet oa the edges and on the under wing-coverts. The feathers of the tail are rich scarlet 

 at their base, and each feather is banded near its extremity with black, and tipped with yel- 

 low. The feathers of the thigh are azure. The bill is yellow, with a tinge of orange, and is 

 rather narrow towards the tip. In spite of its short tail, this bird measures about eleven 

 inches in length, so that it is very much larger thau the preceding species. 



The true Parrots constitute a group which are easily recognized by their short squared 

 tails, the absence of any crest upon the head, and the toothed edges of the upper mandible. 

 Many species belong to this group, of which we shall find three examples in the following 

 pages. 



The Gray Parrot has long been celebrated for its wonderful powers of imitation and its 

 excellent memory. 



It is a native of Western Africa, and is one of the commonest inhabitants of our aviaries, 

 being brought over in great 

 numbers by sailors, and always 

 finding a ready sale as soon as 

 the vessel arrives in port. Un- 

 fortunately the nautical vocabu- 

 lary is none of the most refined, 

 and the sailors have a malicious 

 pleasure in teaching the birds to 

 repeat some of the most start- 

 ling of their phrases. The worst 

 of the matter is, that the Par- 

 rot's memory is wonderfully te- 

 nacious, and even after the lapse 

 of years, and in spite of the most 

 moral training, the bird is apt 

 to break out suddenly with a 

 string of very reprehensible ob- 

 servations affecting the eyes, 

 limbs, and general persons of his 

 hearers. 



There is no doubt that the 

 Parrot learns in course of time 

 to attach some amonnt of mean- 

 ing to the words which it repeats, 

 for the instances of its apposite 

 answers are too numerous and 

 convincing not to prove that the 

 bird knows the general sense of 

 the phrase, if not the exact force 

 of each word. 



I am unwilling to reproduce narratives which I have already published, and therefore 

 restrict myself to one or two original anecdotes. 



There was a Pkrrot belonging to a friend of our family, a Portuguese gentleman. This 

 Parrot was a great favorite in the house, and being accustomed equally to the company of its 

 owner and the rest of the household, was familiar with Portuguese as well as English words 

 and phrases. The bird evidently had the power of appreciating the distinction between the 

 two languages, for if it were addressed, its reply would always be in the language employed. 



The bird learned a Portuguese song about itself and its manifold perfections, the words 

 of which I cannot remember. But it would not sing this song if asked to do so in the 



GEAT PARROT.— i%««a«M erit/tacus. 



