20 BOMBAY DUCKS 
watched a flock of them, can for a moment doubt. 
Other causes contribute to this enjoyment of life. One 
of these is the pleasure—pure and unalloyed pleasure— 
which these birds derive from annoying other species. 
A green parrot will gladly take the trouble to deviate 
from its swift arrow-like course merely to hustle some 
inoffensive little bird off its perch. 
Then again, the tongue of a parrot differs from that 
of other birds. It is constructed so as to give the bird 
a strong sense of taste. This is a sense which must be 
wanting in many birds, else how could they eat worms? 
Watch a pigeon feeding. This lovable bird will gobble 
up a couple of hundred grains of Indian corn in half as 
many seconds, which reminds me of the fact that our 
Teutonic cousins seem to have queer ideas regarding 
what constitutes a compliment. 
I once heard a German tell an English girl, who was 
making a very poor dinner, that she had a stomach like 
a pigeon. It is possible that he meant that her appetite 
resembled that of a dove. Whatever he meant, he was 
very pleased with himself, until he saw the expression 
of anger and disgust on the girl’s face. Then he grew 
sad. Pigeons are very graceful birds, but their manner 
of eating does not commend itself to our British ideas. 
This, however, is @ digression. What I want to 
emphasize is, that a bird which stows away its food at 
such a rate cannot possibly taste what it is eating. The 
same applies, in a lesser degree, to a dog. The parrot, 
however, is an epicure. 
Lastly, Polly has an ear for music. Not that its voice 
is musical, The call of a parrot is a terrible one, and 
