46 
OBEY PABBOT. 
built for shelter for them, but none of the others can ever be persuaded 
to enter it: the gardener declares that the Grey Parrots foresee a 
storm, and often take refuge in their glass-house before it comes. ” 
The foregoing extracts are from a paper read before the British 
Association in 1868, by the late Mr. C. Buxton, and nearly all the 
birds to which he there alludes, some fifty in number, fell a prey to 
“those vile guns”; one gamekeeper “bagged” no less than eleven, 
and, as Mr. Buxton good-naturedly put it, “naturally thought he had 
secured a wonderful prize.” 
“The Grey Parrot is a very good imitator of sounds and voices”, 
wrote Mr. Sydney 0. Buxton in The Animal World for 1878. “We 
had for many years an old retriever named 'Tory’ — now, alas! dead 
of old age and merciful prussic acid. The Parrot could imitate our 
tone and call of 'Tory, Tory!’ and when he happened to be in a merry 
mood (Parrots are fond of fun), and saw Tory half asleep, and com- 
fortably curled up on the mat, he would call out 'Tory! To-ry!’ The 
dog would rouse himself, anxious for a walk, look high and low, before 
and behind, and seeing no one, would begin to lay himself down 
again to rest, his temper slightly ruffled. Cries the Parrot, louder 
than before, 'Tory! To-ry!’ Tory, now thoroughly roused, would 
glance about, and at last espying the Parrot, with a look of intense 
disgust and indignation, proceed to curl himself up again: the bird 
meanwhile chuckling to himself on the success of his practical joke. ” 
Although the following anecdote from the same pen refers to a 
different species, we cannot refrain from quoting it: — “I spoke of the 
love of fun just now. We used to have a Grey Red-breasted Cockatoo, 
'Minniehaha’ by name, who would deliberately lay herself down on 
her back in the middle of the gravel-path, seized a pebble with one 
foot, fling it into the air, and catch it in her mouth if she could as 
it fell. All the while she would scream with pleasure and excitement, 
and evidently thought she was having the jolliest game possible.” 
The Grey Parrots in their native country feed on fruit and grain, 
principally maize, and many thousands of them die within a few weeks 
or months of their importation here. The causes of this mortality are 
various; fever contracted on ship-board, regret for the loss of their 
liberty, or their companions, sheer fright in some cases, and disgust 
at their surroundings in others, improper food in some instances, de- 
privation of water in some, and too much of it in others: but the 
chief cause of death is the inability of the young birds to feed them- 
selves sufficiently to support life. On board-ship and at the dealers, 
when a number of these birds are caged together, the old ones feed 
the young ones, which require this attention for a good many months. 
