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tempting. There were two Illigers in wretched plight, whose

cages showed that their internal state was all that a Parrot's

shonld not be. They had belonged to a fancier of ill repute

who had fled from justice, and had been neglected ; I was offered

one for my sovereign. I hesitated and returned to the country ;

then I thought of the birds at Antwerp, and sent for the better

of the two. He dul}^ arrived, and certainly was a very

unpromising and uninteresting specimen. I sent him to my

warmest bird-room : it is in the grounds and far from the house,

where birds have a quiet time. When the windows are open I

have often listened below unseen, and heard funny essays at

talking; but the Illigerlong continued painfully timid, and clung

to the farthest side of the cage whenever he was approached.

He was named "Jerry," and after a few months a boy, who

assisted in the aviaries, said he had called out "Jerry," — I dis-

believed the statement, but no doubt it was perfectl)'' true.

Parrots would do and say almost anything for this boy.


The next year " Jerry " came down from this room, which is

in a ver}^ lofty position, to the garden, and shared the regime of

several other Parrots, which .spend most of their days in a glazed

verandah or on terraces, and their nights in rooms over the

stables. B)^ degress he became much tamer, frequently repeated

his name in various voices, and then learnt to say almost ever>^-

thing that ni}^ favourite Patagonian Conure said. My only com-

plaint against him is that he has caused the Conure by degrees

almost to cease to talk from sheer disgust and jealous3^ When

I speak to the Conure "Jerry" answers for him, and then he is

silent. In one way only do they ever perform in unison ; they

sometimes jointly imitate a hen which has laid an egg, and set off

a whole troop of Bantams cackling. The lUiger will invariably

talk for me if I am alone, though not always if strangers are'

present. His sa3dngs, I confess, are only about a dozen. His

own name he says in several different voices, from a regular

scream when one is at a distance, to the softest whisper when

one's ear is near- He is very affectionate and delights to kiss ;.

but he is not proof against one passion : he is crazily jealous,

and has occasionally bitten his attendants when he thought the}^

were attending too much to another bird. Through the whole

time (over three-and-a-half years) that I have had him, he has

constantly improved both intellectually and physically, and his

plumage is exquisitely close and glossy. It may be interesting

to some aviculturists to know that a bird, evidently of mature

years when I first had him, should have become, instead of sO'

wild and uncouth a creature, an educated and civilized one ; and



