STRANGE BIRDS AND THEIR WAYS. 255 



change of diet, and at last to absolute inability. Of 

 course, there was great disappointment. " Beauty's " cage 

 hung at the dining-room window ; every visitor was in ad- 

 miration of her sjiotless plumage and faultless shape ; and, 

 of course, everybody sympathized in the disap]3ointment at 

 her irremediable defect. 



7. " AVhat a pity it is she does not talk ! " remarked a 

 person one day at dinner ; "she would be worth her 

 weight in gold." "She almost cost it as it is," said pater- 

 familias. " The creature is a cheat. Fine feathers don't 

 make fine birds, certainly not fine parrots. I paid ten 

 guineas for her, and she can not say one word." "Ah, but 

 I think the more ! What's the use of talking, if you have 

 nothing to say ? " came in clear articulate sounds from the 

 cage, to the amazement of family and guests. That settled 

 forever ' ' Beauty's " supremacy. 



8. Whether it is possible to entirely eradicate bad habits 

 in parrots is doubtful. Captain Simpson, well known by 

 transatlantic passengers, used to duck his paroquet in the 

 sea every time it swore an oath. This seemed to cure him 

 of using profane language. The creature really connected 

 an oath with a dowse in the water, and gave up swearing. 

 One day, in a furious storm, a man was washed overboard, 

 and witli great difficulty was recovered. As soon as he was 

 drawn on deck, and efforts were being made to resuscitate 

 him. " Polly " kept hopping around the circle, shaking her 

 head from side to side, and saying, gravely, " You've been 

 swearing ! you've been swearing ! " 



9. It is said that macaws are the best talkers of the 

 whole species, providing they are reared from the nest. 

 And not only are they able to talk, but they also sing in a 

 peculiar, soft voice. In sweetness, though not in compass, 

 of musical notes, they are, however, excelled by the grass 

 or green paroquet. While the cockatoo is the hardiest of 

 the parrot tribe, and the most easily tamed, it is, at the 



