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When in the garden, Polly did not by any means always

have his own way. He was universally detested ; and some of

the Jays and Pies played him many a pretty trick. The male

Struthidea, too, had a pleasing little way of suddenly pouncing

down upon him, and knocking him headlong from his perch.


But the Hunting Cissa was his pet aversion. The male

Cissa is a terrible scamp, and as cunning a rogue as may be

found in Asia. Polly is brought into the garden, and placed on

a long perch, and along the perch he trots ; but he suddenly

stops and looks nervously round, and finds that the Cissa has

suddenly appeared on the same perch behind him ; — -but he is

looking the other way, and seems so innocent, that Polly trots on

again. He quickly stops, however, and looks anxiously back ;

but the Cissa, although certainly much nearer, is only indus¬

triously wiping his bill. Again Polly trots off, but suddenly

stops short, for the Cissa, who is still wiping his bill, is now

close behind him. Polly is in a quandary ; if he turns once

more, he knows what is in store for him ; for the Cissa never lost

an opportunity of pulling Polly’s tail, and this he would do with

no gentle tweak, but with a tug so vicious that Polty would yelp

like a toe-trodden puppy. So nervous did Polly become that,

eventually, when put out, he would at once fly into a sheltered

corner where he could not be attacked from behind, and there

he would stay until taken in again.


What with Polly’s jealousy of, and madness towards,

some of the other birds, and his horrible and continuous

screaming when not being petted, he was voted a nuisance, and,

after some years, was handed over to a niece, who pays him

unremitting attention. Mr. Dutton refers to the uncertainty of

the temper of the Amazons. There is no such uncertainty about

Polly. His present owner hardly dares to let Polly out of his

cage because of the difficulty she experiences in getting him

back again, for Polly will be pretty certain to bite her if thwarted.

But to-da}% as in the past, Polly obeys 1113^ orders in a moment,

because he knows I am master. With the larger Parrots,

Cockatoos, Horses, and Sunday Scholars, if you are not master

you are nowhere. Teach them first and foremost to respect you,

and then you may shew kindness, but to begin with and to trust

to kindness, and kindness alone, is fatal. Of course these

remarks do not apply to timid birds, only to the savage and

strong, and to those who have sufficient reasoning powers to

know right from wrong.


Occasionally I pay Polly a visit ; and the moment my



