The Grey Parrot. 299 
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 
receive. " Give the knave a groat," screamed the bird 
the instant the reference was made. 
The memory of Parrots is very astonishing, and they 
can not only imitate discourse, but can sing verses of 
songs, and mimic gestures and actions. Scaliger saw 
one that performed the dance of the Savoyards at the 
same time that it repeated their song. The song was 
well imitated, but when the bird tried to caper, it was 
with the worst grace imaginable, as he 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, stretch- 
ing itself out, " 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, though 
they live here to a great age. They feed entirely upon 
vegetables, but, when tame, will take from the mouth of 
their master or mistress any kind of chewed meat, and 
chiefly eggs, of which they seem particularly fond. They 
bite or pinch very hard, and some of them possess so 
much strength in their beak, that they could easily 
break a man's finger. The Parrot is sensible of attach- 
ment, as well as of revenge ; and if in their mimic atti- 
tudes they show great pleasure at the sight of their 
feeders, they also fly up with anger to the face of those 
who once have affronted or injured them. 
