6 THE PARROT TRIBES. 
then laughing still more violently than before. Her crying and 
sobbing are also curious. When asked “ Poll, what is the 
matter?” she says, “ So bad, so bad — got such a cold,” and, 
after crying some time, she will gradually cease, and make a 
noise like drawing a long breath, saying, “ Better now,” and 
begin to laugh. 
Imitating a child’s voice, she has been heard to call out, 
“ Payne, I am not well, I am not well!” and on Payne (the 
servant) going into the room, she would stop and begin laugh- 
ing in a jeering way. When affronted, she cries ; when pleased, 
she laughs ; if any one coughs, she says, “ What a bad cold ! ” 
On one occasion the children were repeating, in her presence, 
some of her sayings : Poll looked up and said, “ Ho, I didn’t !” 
She calls the cat plainly, saying, “Puss! puss!” and then 
answering “ Mew,” and on the lady who relates all this, calling 
“ Puss ! puss !” she answers “ Mew.” She barks so naturally, 
that all the dogs on the parade at Hampton Court have been 
set barking in return ; and a party of cocks and hens have been 
thrown into consternation by her imitation of their crowing and 
clucking. She sings like a child. If she makes a false note, 
she will correct herself with an “ 0 Lor !” and a burst of laugh- 
ter at herself, beginning again in quite another key. “ Buy a 
broom !” is her favourite tune, which she says quite plainly ; but 
if the relater repeats the words in order to induce her to go on, 
she says, “ Buy a brush!” and laughs. She performs a sort 
of lance exercise, putting her claw behind her, first on one side 
then on the other, then in front and round her head, saying 
the while “ Come on, come on !” finishing with “ Bravo ! beau- 
tiful ! ” drawing herself up at the same time. Strange ladies 
she receives with “ How do you do, ma’am?” and one day the 
narrator went into the room and asked, “ Where has Payne 
gone ? ” To her astonishment and almost dismay, the bird an- 
swered, “ Down stairs !” 
Scores of stories illustrative of the imitative powers of the 
grey parrot might be quoted. Buffon says, “ one of these 
parrots was instructed by a sailor, on the voyage from Guinea, 
whose hoarse voice and cough it imitated so naturally, that the 
crew were often deceived, and thought they heard the sailor, 
when it was the mimic. He was afterwards taught by a young 
man, and, although he then heard no other voice, he still did 
not forget the instruction of his old master, and it was amusing 
to hear him pass from the soft and agreeable voice of youth, to 
the hoarse accent and rough voice of the old sailor. This bird 
