The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-08-11


A young lady advertised, few days
since, liberal reward for ga young
parrot speaking q little Spanish" and
It is to be hoped got the bird. "ln
fact" said the old bird-fancier, +" moth
ing would be easier, in our line, than
to supply her with any reasonable
quantity of parrots speaking great
deal OF Spanish. If a parrot has any
other mother. tongue than an Internal
squawk, that mother-tongue is Spanish,
at least with those that come here from
South America, which is our main
source OF supply. 1t is, you under
stand, the language of the people who
capture the bird and give it the rudi-
ments of education. Very naturally,
the first words parrot learns from
them are likely to be 'bonito papagayo
and 'caramba,' just as. If English-speak-
ing people got him first, he would begin
by saying Pretty Polly and some IA
miliar and probably more vigorous
words than those Spanish ones. Span
ish oaths. by the way, don't amount to
much, as a rule, any more than the
French ssacre pomme de terre' or the
German 'donner und blitzen.' But the
noble Castilian tongue is not altogether
devoid Of ingenious explosives Some
of them are strong enough to curl the
hair of mule, and not infrequently we
get parrots that have had their con-
versational powers developed in that
direction to startling extent. 1t
doesn't hurt the value of the bird for
people who don't understand Spanish.
They may innocently imagine it his
wild, sweet, native song when he is
making the most frightfully ornate re-
marks about their Liz hits and livers and
things, and no harm is done. By
and by, too, he will learn the language
of the people he is with, and not hear
ing Spanish spoken about him. will
gradually drop it. 1t is open to doubt,
however, whether a parrot ever wholly
forgets what he has once learned-a
really good one, l mean. Several
months ago gentleman who was 60
ing abroad, not expecting to return for
two or three years, left with me for
sale very fine parrot that, he said, he
had had for over five years. The bird
spoke English extraordinary well and,
as he subsequently assured me, he
never knew that he spoke anything
else, as he had bought it from an En-
glish lady, who had not told him that
he knew any other language. But
while he was here couple of ladies
entered the store one day and, while
looking about were chattering in Span
ish to each other when they were star
ted by the exclamation, in loud tone
of surprise, 'Caramban 1t was the
parrot. They talked to 1t in Spanish.
For some little time it either could not
or would not say anything but Car
amban and always with the proper in
tonation as an exclamation of aStonish-
ment. At length, however, its memory
came back, and it began uttering a
variety of Spanish words with great vol
utility. The ladies assured me that it
spoke Spanish exceedingly well, and
was-wbat was still more remarkable
a very decent bird, with good moral
training. One of them bought it and
paid me good price for it. A parrot
learns very quickly, if it is going to
learn at all. One that speaks Spanish
only when it leaves South America will
pick up great deal of English in the
course of a trip of three of four weeks
by sailing vessel to this port; and as
parrots are generally broug ht here by
sailors whose habits of speech are, to
to say the least. lacking in refinement,
poor Polly is likely to have a good
many undesirable words in her vocab-
ulary when she goes into American good
society.
"Some of the fine gray parrots that
come here from Africa speak Portuguese
fuently, that being the language of the
people who captured them; and oc-
casionally we strike one that jabbers
gibberish that nobody understands,
doubtless some negro talk. Green par
rots from Brazil also speak Portuguese.
Minos are the same as parrots. talking
any language that is about them. Most
people have mistaken idea about the
mino, that he simply fires off shrek
ike steam-whistle every five minutes
or so. But that Is wrong. He can be
taught to talk, and very well, too. even
better than most parrots. Parrots learn
German and French, or, indeed, any
language, the same as they do English;
but the birds that attain those accom-
plishments gain them from private
owners, who value them as pupils, as
well as pets. and they seldom get into
our hands, except by accident l was
aboard an outgoing French steamer, re-
Gently, ON business, just before she left
the dock. and noticed on the deck an
elderly French woman-o1e of party
who was manifesting great solcitude
about parrot that she had in a cage.
1t was hard to tell which one of them
was chattering French most vigorously,
she or the bird. l don't suppose she
would have taken $500 for that French
speaking parrot, which was intrinsically
worth about S15. don't know that 1
have ever encountered German par
rot, but have heard of them and know
that they exist"
Another bird-fancier, German, said
upon that branch of the subject: seer
man parrots7 Bless mel yes; lots OF
them. But can hardly say that the
parrot seems to be specially adapted to
speaking German. 1t is rather too
heavy for his tongue. and as a rule be
only takes in the shorter and easier
words, and not great many of them
then. He would have to be q very
bold parrot who would undertake to
swear in German. One of the best |