BIRDS — EMULATION AND VINDICTIVENESS. 277 
many/ the following graphic description of the exultation 
displayed by the bird when it baffled the imitative powers 
of its master. The bird was the same as that already 
mentioned under the head of 6 Memory ’ : — 
Sometimes when only two or three were in the room, at quiet 
occupations instead of talking, she would utter at short inter- 
vals a series of strong squalls or cries in an interjectiona! style, 
each more strange and grotesque than the previous one. My 
father on these occasions sometimes amused himself by imitat- 
ing these crms as she uttered them, which seemed to excite her 
ingenuity in the production of them to the uttermost. As a last 
resource she always had recourse to a very peculiar one, which 
completely baffled him ; upon which, with a loud ha I ha ! ha ! 
she made a somersault round her perch, swinging with her head 
downwards, sprung from one part of the cage to another, and 
tossed a bit of wood she used as a toy over her head in the 
most exulting triumph, repeating at intervals the inimitable cry, 
followed by peals of ha ! ha ! ha 1 to the great amusement of all 
present. 
Allied to emulation is resentment, of which the follow- 
ing, communicated to me by a correspondent, may be 
taken as an example. If space permitted I could give 
confirmatory cases : — 
One day the eat and the parrot had a quarrel. I think the 
cat had upset Polly’s food, or something of that kind ; however, 
they seemed all right again. An hour or so after, Polly was 
standing on the edge of the table ; she called out in a tone of 
extreme affection, 4 Puss, puss, come then — come then, pussy.’ 
Pussy went and looked up innocently enough. Polly with 
her beak seized a basin of milk standing by, and tipped the 
basin and all its contents over the cat; then chuckled diabolically, 
of course broke the basin, and half drowned the eat. 
Several strange but mutually corroborative stories 
seem to show cherished vindictiveness on the part of 
storks. Thus, in Captain Brown’s book there occurs an 
account of a tame stork which lived in the college yard at 
Tubingen,— 
And in a neighbouring house was a nest, in which other storks, 
that annually resorted to the place, used to hatch their eggs, 
At this nest, one day in autumn, a young collegian fired a shot { 
