460 SOANSOEBS, OE CLIMBEES. 



de la Borde relates that he has seen a Parrot supply the place of 

 chaplain to a ship, for he recited the prayer and rosary to the 

 sailors. Levaillant heard a Parrot say the Lord's Prayer lying on 

 its back, placing together the toes of its feet as we join our hands 

 in the act of praj^er. Willoughby mentions a Parrot which, when 

 he said to him, " Laugh, Parrot ! " immediately burst out laughing, 

 and cried out an instant after, " the great fool who made me 

 laugh ! " A keeper of a glass shop possessed one which, when- 

 ever he broke anything or knocked over a vase, invariably ex- 

 claimed, in tones of anger, " Awkward brute ! he never does 

 anything else." 



" We have seen a Parrot," says Buffon, " which had grown old 

 with his master, and partaken with him the infirmities of age. 

 Accustomed to hear little more than the words, ' I am ill,' when 

 asked, ' How are you. Parrot — how are you ? ' ' I am ill,' it replied 

 in doleful tones, ' I am ill,' and stretching itself on the hearth 

 — ' I am ill.' " " A Parrot from Guinea," says the same author, 

 " being taught on the journey by an old sailor, learnt his rough 

 voice and his cough so perfectly that they could be mistaken. 

 Although it had been given immediately after to a young person, 

 and only heard his voice, it did not forget the lessons of its 

 former master, and nothing was so agreeable as to hear it pass 

 from a sweet and pleasant voice to its old hoarseness and the 

 cough of early times." 



Goldsmith relates that a Parrot belonging to King Henry VIII., 

 and always confined in a chamber bordering upon the Thames, 

 had learnt several phrases which it heard repeated by the boat- 

 men and passengers. One day it was let fall into the Thames, 

 when it cried with a strong voice, " A boat ! a boat ! twenty 

 pounds to save me ! " A waterman immediately threw himself 

 into the river, thinking that some one was drowning, and was 

 much surprised to find it was only a bird. Having recognised 

 the king's Parrot, he carried it to the palace, claiming the 

 recompense the bird had promised when in distress. The circum- 

 stance was related to Henry VIII., who laughed much, and paid 

 it with a good grace. 



The Prince Leon, son of the Emperor Basil, having been 

 condemned to death by his father, owed his life to his Parrot, 



