THE STARLING. 
274 
thus explained:—“ Popingay, a parrot; Papegaut , Fr. ; 
Papegaey , Belg. ; Papagallo , Ital.” 
In the Privy Purse expenses of King Henry VIII. the 
following entry occurs under date November, 1532 :— 
“ Itm.—The laste daye paied in rewarde to a 
woman that wolde have gyven a popin- 
gay to the King’s grace . . . x s. 
The practice of turning to advantage the capability 
which certain birds possess for learning to utter words 
must be of some antiquity, for Pliny alludes to the 
starlings which were trained for the amusement of the 
young Caesars, as being capable of uttering both Latin 
and Greek. 
Shakespeare thus refers to the starling’s talking 
powers :— 
“ Hotspur . He said, he would not ransom Mortimer ; 
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer ; 
But I will find him when he lies asleep, 
And in his ear I ’ll holloa, ‘ Mortimer ! ’ 
Nay, I ’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak 
Nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him, 
To keep his anger still in motion.” 
Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3. 
It is stated that when M. Girardin visited his friend 
M. Thirel in Paris, he was agreeably astonished at hearing 
a starling articulate a dozen consecutive sentences with the 
