TALKING BIRDS 
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Macaws do not seem to understand cockatoo 
language ; but the grey parrots often use much 
the same sound. It seems to be a call-note express- 
ing their willingness to make friends and be petted. 
“ Is the talking of birds due to mental or physical 
causes ? ” is a question often asked. In the first place, 
no doubt, it is due to the disposition of the bird. Some 
parrots and cockatoos never learn to talk, though their 
organs of speech differ in no way from those of others 
that do. They seem to be without the imitative bias, 
like the hawks which have curved beaks and thick 
tongues, but are equally silent. But where the disposi- 
tion to mimic is present, physical causes limit or widen 
the bird’s powers. Parrots and the crow tribe are 
both imitative, but the parrots’ beaks and tongues are 
more suited for imitating human speech, just as the 
raven, with his high-arched beak and big throat excels 
the jay. Other birds with still less suitable organs, 
such as the sedge-warbler, though excellent mimics, 
cannot reproduce human speech at all. There seems 
no reason why parrots, if they would breed in confine- 
ment, should not teach their accomplishments to their 
young ones, as the canaries have done theirs. Perhaps 
in time the experiment may be made. 
