256 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



same time, the most difficult to teach to talk at all well. 

 Its disposition is more gentle, however, and its obedience 

 more implicit, than any of the other species. The gray 

 African parrot, from its docility and aptitude, ranks every- 

 where first as a favorite, though of late years the common 

 green Amazon, from the little attention it requires, and its 

 quick sagacity, is sharing the general favor. 



10. A gentleman residing in Wilmington, Delaware, 

 owns one of these Amazon parrots. It possesses a fluency 

 and variety of language rarely ever equaled by the African 

 gray. As soon as her master returns from the office for 

 dinner, Polly begins to salute him in fondest expressions : 

 " Papa, dear, come and kiss your pretty green beauty ! 

 Come in, come in, papa, and give us a kiss, and a thousand 

 more !" When the footman enters the room, she says to 

 him, but never to any one else, " Fetch my dinner, James 

 — I'm hungry. Stupid fellow ! I can't eat my head off ! " 

 To a bachelor friend, who frequently spends several weeks 

 at the house, Polly has but one question, never put to any 

 one else, " Oh, you gay deceiver, why did you promise to 

 marry me, and didn't?" To a gentleman, a near neigh- 

 bor, whom she had once overheard saying, at the after- 

 dinner table, " The bird's invaluable ; five hundred dollars 

 would not buy her, if I owned her — would it, Polly ?" she 

 always addresses the salute the moment he appears, " Five 

 hundred dollars would not buy Polly, if you owned her ! 

 Five hundred dollars ! Five hundred dollars ! Why, the 

 bird's invaluable ! " 



11. This Wilmington parrot certainly discriminates be- 

 tween the sexes and between conditions in life. To a 

 well-dressed young gentleman the remark is, " What a get- 

 up ! What a swell you are !" To a young lady, on the 

 contrary, fondling and kissing, she says, with great defer- 

 ence, " Is she not nice ? — so nice ! " Whereas to a clergy- 

 man, who is detected by his dress, she is exceedingly 



