BIRDS TRAINED TO PERFORM 141 



which make excellent pets but -will not talk at all. 



A native power of mimicry is the essential up- 

 on which rests the ability of birds to repeat 

 words of human origin. Their whole training is 

 based on imitation of sound, not of action. 

 Clever body manceuvers played with the wings, 

 feet, or bill are the outcome of a habit instilled in 

 them by the trainer through continuous repe- 

 tition until the movements have become instinc- 

 tive. The performing crow at the New York 

 Hippodrome has been taught by repeated trials 

 and an innate love for carrying objects in its 

 bill to catch rubber balls tossed in its direction, 

 a triok that it could not learn by imitation. But, 

 despite a facility in acrobatics, it is impossible 

 to teach a crow to say more than a few words. 

 It is not naturally a clever imitator of sound. 



But the power of mimicking is not everything. 

 Although a bird may be able to mimic it will not 

 necessarily do so without some inducement. 

 An amazon parrot says, "Polly wants a 

 cracker," first, because it likes to make the 

 sounds, and, secondly, because it has learned to 

 associate the sounds with food. The captive 

 bird quickly learns that it can make capital out 

 of its art of mimicry. Its tendency soon is to 

 imitate the sound of everything that goes on near 

 the cage. It finds that the more it mimics the 

 better care it gets. Then, as time passes, the im- 

 itation of the human voice becomes a fast-set 



