GRFoY FXRROT. -rsiUacus erijthacus. 



The Geey 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. Unfortunately the nautical vocabulary is none of 

 the most refined, and the sailors have a malicious pleasure in teaching the birds to repeat 

 some of the most startling of their phrases. The worst of the matter is, that the Parrot's 

 memory is wonderfully tenacious, and even after the lapse of years, and in spite of the 

 most moral training, tlie bird is apt to break out suddenly with a string of very reprehen- 

 sible observations 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 amount of 

 meaning 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. 



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