Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-12
Parrots as Linguists.

a total of e91 ,8s3.
 Parrots as Linguists.
 Birds-Dombrosvskt's Pet--An Agnostic
 Parrot.
 From the New York Sum-.
 young lady advertised, few days since, liberal reward for "a young parrot, speaking little Spanish" and, it is to be hoped, got the desired bird. Tn fact, y said old bird fancier, nothing would be easi- CT, in our lne than to supply her with any reasonable quantity of parrots speaking a great deal of Spanish. If parrots 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. It is, you understand, the language of tho 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 "caram- ba, just as if English-speaking people got him first he would begin by saying Pretty Polly, " and some familiar and probably more vigorous words than those Spanish ones. Spanish oaths, by the way, are unsatisfacto ry, and don't amount to much as a rule, any more than the French ''sacre pomme de ter re-" or the German tdonder and blitzen." But the noble Castilian tongue is not alto gether devoid of ingenious explosives. Some of them are strong enough to curl the hair on a mule, and not infrequently we get par rots that have had their conversational pow CTS developed in that direction to a startling extent. It doesn't hurt the value of the bird for people who don't understand Spanishs They may innooently imagine it his wild, sweet native song when he Is making the most frightfully ornate remarks about their lights and livers and things, and so no harm is done. By and by, too, he will learn the language of the people he is with, and not hearing Spanish spoken about him will gradually drop it. It is open to doubt, how ever, whether parrot ever wholly torgets what he has once learned-a really good one, l mean. Several months ago a gentleman who was going abroad, not expecting to re- turn 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 extraordinarily well, and, as he subse- quently assured me- he never knew that it spoke anything else, as he had bought it from an English lady. who had not told him that it knew any other language. But, while it was here, couple of ladies entered the store one day and, while looking about, were chat tering in Spanish to each other when they were startled by the exclamation, in a loud tone of surprise, ''Caramba '" It was the parrot They talked to it in Spanish. For some little time it either could not or would not say anything but ''Caramba" and al- ways with the proper intonaton as an excla-
 
 ever, it's memory came back and it began uttering variety of Spanish words with great volatility. The ladies assured me that it spoke Spanish exceedingly well. and vas what was still more remarkable-a very de- cent bird, with good moral training. One of them bought it and paid me good price for it. parrot learns very quickly, If it is go ing 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 or four weeks by a sailing ves- | sel to this port and as parrots are generally brought here by sailors-whose habits of | speech are, to say the least, lacking in refine | ment, usually-poor Polly is likely to have good many undesirable words in her vocabul- ary when she goes into American good socie- ty.
 l 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 occasionally we strike I one that jabbers gibberish nobody under 1 stands, doubtless some negro talk. Green parrots from Brazil also speak PortugueseS 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 shriek like 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 l German and French or, indeed. any lan- guage, the same they do English but the | birds that attain those accomplishments gain ! them from private owners who value them as pupils, as we'll as pets, and they seldom get | into our hands, except by accident I was aboard an outgoing French steamer recently, | on business, just before she left the dock, l and noticed on the deck an elderly French l woman-one ot the party-who mani l festing great solicitude about parrot that she had in cage. It was hard to tell which l of them was chattering French most vigor ously, she or the bird I don't suppose she | would have taken five hundred dollars for l that French speaking parrot, which was in | trinsically worth about fifteen. don't know l that, have ever encountered a German parrot, but 1 have heard of them and know that they I exist"
 Another bird fancier, German, said upon that branch of the subject German par rots! Bless me! yes lots of them. But can hardly say that the parrot seems to be specially adapted to speaking German. It is rather too heavy for his tongue, and as arule | he only takes in the short CT and easier words, and not great many of them even. He would have to be very bold parrot who would undertake to swear in German. One of the best German-speaking parrots I have ever met was owned by Dombrowski, the | German actor, who came over here dozen years ago to support the great Mime Seebach. It a villainously malicious bird toward | every body except him. but he had spent much time in betting and training it, and l with surprisingly good results. He carrl- ed it about with him in all his travels brought it here from Germany, lugged it around from place to place, and finally took it back with him. I don't think it would be difficult for me, at any time, to find for customer Ger. man or French-speaking parrot-not, of course, perfectly educated one, but one that could speak . little of either language. It is not seldom that parrot knows good many words out of two or three languages, but is likely to get them mixed up in his talking"
 It is no longer matter for question that
 parrots at least seem very often to know the
 meaning of the words they use, and apply
 them intelligently, appostely, in whatever
 language they speak. Poor Virginia Whit
 ing, whose brief and brilliant career was that
 of one of our best native prima donnas, had
 a very fine green parrot of unusually amia
 ble and intelligent character that was poison
 cd by a malicious s5rvant. The wretched
 bird, lying upon It's back in its mistress
 lap with it's claws conyulsively drawn up to its breast in it's dying agonies, whined ou } with really human intonation of pain anC anxiety "Oh my God! what's goin' to be come of poor Polly ?"
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 Do boldly what you do at all" Boldly do affirm that Kidney Wort is the grea
 remedy for liver, bowel and kidney diseases rheumatism and piles vanish before it. Th'