THE BIRD WORLD. 
Pet Birds and 
Royalty. 
(34) 
Elizabeth, the Crown Prince of Saxony, and the 
present King of Italy were treated with the same 
rudeness by the obdurate bird, whose blue and 
salmon-coloured plumage they all admired. 
Understood at Last. 
After a few years of mute captivity, one fine 
morning the parrot muttered a guttural sound 
followed by syllables in an unknown tongue, 
which the Queen, who is a linguist, discovered 
to be Portuguese. She immediately answered 
in that language. The parrot gave a shriek of 
joy, and his humour completely changed, but 
this happy state of events did not last long, as 
he was found one day by the Queen stark dead 
in his gilded cage. Carmen Sylva shed warm 
tears of"regret, and says the bird was her favour¬ 
ite and she had pitied him with all her heart. 
After the death of the Brazilian parrot the 
Queen became attached to a bullfinch called 
Karl, which belonged to one of her ladies, and 
in whose honour she wrote a small poem which 
is supposed to be composed by the bullfinch for 
his own usage. 
On the balcony of her apartments in Castel 
Pelesch at Sinaia the Queen deposits crumbs of 
bread, and every morning the sparrows are there 
in thousands to greet her in loud tones. The 
Queen of Roumania is a real bird-lover. 
The Waders’ Aviary at the Zoo. 
Although the most popular aviary with most patrons of the Regent’s Park Gardens is that in which 
the Parrot tribe disport themselves, the small and beautifully-arranged aviary devoted to our small 
British waders and other British birds is nearly as much appreciated ; the accompanying view gives 
a good idea of it. 
The Waders’ Aviary at the Zoo with some of its inhabitants. 
Pied Wagtail, Kingfisher, Oyster-catcher, Lapwing, Ruff, Avocets, Swallow. 
