488 ASH-COLOURED PARROT. 



that he should have as the bird, being asked anew, 

 should say ; and the bird answers Gwe the knave a 

 groat. 



It is also probable that the Parrot mentioned 

 by Cselius Rhodoginus, and which belonged to 

 Cardinal Ascanius, was of this species. " I can- 

 not," says this author, " omit an extraordinary 

 wonder seen in our times. This was a Parrot at 

 Rome, belonging to Cardinal Ascanius*, who pur- 

 chased it for an hundred gold pieces, and which, 

 in the most articulate and uninterrupted manner, 

 recited the Apostles Creed as well as the best 

 reader could have done, and which, as a most ex- 

 traordinary and wonderful thing, I could not pass 

 unnoticed." 



BufFon informs us that the Grey Parrot lias been 

 known to breed in France. A gentleman at Mar- 

 mande in that country had a pair which for five 

 or six years together produced young ones, which 

 were successfully reared : these Parrots made their 

 nest in spring, in a cask filled with saw-dust: the 

 number of eggs was four, one of which was always 

 unproductive. A similar instance occurred long 

 before at Paris according to Labat. 



The Grey Parrot, like many others, is extremely 

 long-lived, and we are sometimes told of indi- 

 viduals which have attained to the age of fifty, 

 sixty, or even an hundred years. 



Monsr. Levaillant gives us a curious and in- 

 teresting account of one at Amsterdam which 



* Probably about the year 1500. 



