BIRDS. 247 
water. The bird had no sooner discovered its situation, 
than it called out aloud, " A boat ! twenty pounds for a 
boat!" A waterman, happening to be near the place 
where the Parrot was floating, immediately took it up, 
and restored it to the king ; demanding, as the bird was 
a favourite, that he should be paid the reward the bird 
had called out. This was refused ; but it was agreed 
that, as the Parrot had offered a reward, the man should 
again refer to its determination for the sum he was to re- 
ceive. " Give the knave a groat," the bird screamed 
aloud, the instant the reference was made. 
Parrots not only imitate discourse, but also mirnic 
gestures and actions. Scaliger saw one that performed 
the dance of the Savoyards, at the same time that it re- 
peated their song. The song was well imitated, but when 
the bird tried to caper, it was with the worst grace ima- 
ginable, as be turned in his toes, and kept tumbling back 
in a most clumsy manner. 
Willoughby tells us of a Parrot, which, when a person 
said to it, " Laugh, Poll, laugh," laughed accordingly, 
and the instant after screamed out, " What a fool to make 
me laugh!" Another, which had grown old with its 
master, shared with him the infirmities of age. Being 
accustomed to hear scarcely anything but the words, " I 
am sick;" when a person asked it, " How do you do, 
Poll?" " I am sick," it replied in a doleful tone, 
stretching itself along, " I am sick." 
Parrots are very numerous in the East and West 
Indies, where they assemble in companies, like rooks, and 
build in the hollows of trees. The female lays two or 
three eggs, marked with little specks, like those of the 
partridge. They never breed in our climate, and yet live 
here to a great age. They feed entirely upon vegetables, 
yet, when tame, they take out of the mouth of their mas- 
ter or mistress any kind of chewed meat, and chiefly eggs, 
of which they seem particularly fond. They riot only 
