A Bird Among Birds. 



II 



imitation that on more than one occasion 

 persons would stop to listen to the fun 

 among the women folks of the house, to be 

 told on inquiring as to what was going on, 

 that it was " only Polly having a laugh to 

 himself." The most natural of all his imi- 

 tations, however, was the crying of a baby. 

 It was enough to touch the heart of any 

 tender parent passing the house when Polly 

 had this theme in hand. Such sobbing, 

 such holding of breath and then bursting 

 out afresh in a perfect scream as of pain, 

 made everybody within hearing and not 

 knowing the source feel like suggesting 

 Winslow soothing syrup or paregoric, and 

 that without delay. One other extraordi- 

 nary effort of Polly was the squealing of a 

 dying pig. Mr. Crick killed many hogs 

 for the market, and this gave the bird 

 an excellent opportunity to acquire this 

 ear-piercing refrain. His imitation of the 

 whining of a puppy and the barking of a 

 dog were perfect in the full sense of the 

 term. In short there was nothing that he 

 undertook to imitate which was not done to 

 perfection, except the braying of the mule. 

 Polly was happy in his home, but he 

 finally became too sociable for Mr. Crick's 

 use, and this was the cause of his sale and 

 my becoming his owner, master, friend — 

 his last owner. His obtrusive sociability 

 consisted in eating from the baby's hand. 

 One day the baby was eating candy. Polly 

 wanted some of that candy, so he just 

 walked up to where baby was sitting at the 

 door and took the candy and a part of the 

 thumb from baby's hand. When baby 

 cried he broke out in a fit of laughing, 

 which novel concert brought the family to 

 the scene, and from that moment it was 

 resolved, finally and irrevocably, that "Polly 

 must go." He was at once deprived of his 

 liberty by being put into his cage and 

 transported to Lancaster, five miles distant, 

 to be sold. He was kept in a basement 

 restaurant, where I for the first time saw 

 him, loved him, and bought him. 



A large volume might be written of my 

 more than twenty years' experience with 

 this wonderful creature; of the excursions 

 we made together through the surrounding 

 country; of our trips to various large cities 

 in Pennsylvania; of his tricks in gymnas- 

 tics; of his accompaniment when I whistled 

 "Sweet Home;" of his gathering up from 

 the floor a number of coins, carefully bring- 

 ing them to me in a perfect roll and plac- 

 ing them in my hand; of his ringing a bell, 

 carrying a little bucket of water, bringing 

 my hat, my handkerchief or my purse, 

 when told to do so, and of a number of 

 other equally wonderful feats indicating 

 extraordinary sagacity, if not reasoning 

 powers. But I will content myself with 

 giving one remarkable episode in his career 

 which I think most astonishing of all, and 

 one in which I, for one, found, great diffi- 

 culty in fixing the line where "animal in- 

 stinct" ceases and reasoning faculties be- 

 gin- 

 In 1876 I left for Europe, and expect- 

 ing to stay several years, bethought me 

 as to what disposition to make of my pet, 

 during my absence. It occurred to me that 

 the safest place would be the Zoological 

 Gardens at Philadelphia, and there, accord- 

 ingly, I left him. After three years and 

 three months absence, I called at the Zoo 

 and requested the superintendent, Mr. 

 Brown, to accompany me to the bird house, 

 telling him that I proposed to put Polly to 

 a test as to the retentiveness of his memory. 

 Mr. Brown cheerfully complied, and we 

 were witnesses of one of the most remark- 

 able instances of animal sagacity on record. 

 I will quote from an article in a Philadel- 

 phia paper, which appeared a few days 

 later, and was written .by one of the report- 

 ers after an interview with the superintend- 

 ent. He says: "On entering the bird 

 house Mr. Sprenger took his station on the 

 opposite side of the building from that 

 occupied by Polly, where the bird could 

 not see him, and then exclaimed: 'Where's 



