CAROLINA PARROT. 
125 
me, men, women, and children, laughing and seeming 
yronderfully amused with the novelty of my companion. 
The Chickasaws called it in their language “ Keliiiky 
but when they heard me call it Poll, they soon repeated 
the name ; and wherever I chanced to stop among 
these people, we soon became familiar with each other 
through the medium of Poll. On arriving at Mr Dun- 
bar’s, below Natchez, I procured a cage, and placed it 
under the piazza, where by its call it soon attracted 
the passing flocks ; such is the attachment they have 
for each other. Numerous parties frequently alighted 
on the trees immediately above, keeping up a con- 
stant conversation with the prisoner. One of these I 
wounded slightly in the wing, and the pleasure Poll 
expressed on meeting with this new companion was 
really amusing. She crept close up to it as it hung on 
the side of the cage, chattering to it in a low tone of 
voice, as if sympathizing in its misfortune, scratched 
about its head and neck with her bill; and both at 
night nestled as close as possible to each other, some- 
times Poll’s head being thrust among the plumage of the 
other. On the death of this companion, she appeared 
restless and inconsolable for several days. On reach- 
ing New Orleans, I placed a looking glass beside the 
place where she usually sat, and the instant she per- 
ceived her image, all her former fondness seemed to 
return, so that she could scarcely absent herself from 
it a moment. It was evident that she was completely 
deceived. Always when evening drew on, and often 
during the day, she laid her head close to that of the 
image in the glass, and began to doze with great com- 
posure and satisfaction. In this short space she had 
learnt to know her name ; to answer and come when 
called on ; to climb up my clothes, sit on my shoulder, 
and eat from my mouth. I took her with me to sea, 
determined to persevere in her education ; but, destined 
to another fate, poor Poll, having one morning, about 
daybreak wrought her way through the cage, while I 
was asleep, instantly flew overboard, and perished in 
the Gulf of Mexico. 
