The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1882-04-29
Talking Birds.

Parrots, starlings, and jackdaws are
not the only birds that talk" Birds
not possessed of native powers of mel
ody are usually gifted with very va
ried abilities of articulation. hooded
crow, for instance, can produce an
astonishing variety of complex noises
from his throat, and his talents only
lack cultivation to enable him TO give
utterance to words; but his natural
language is the very reverse of melo-
dious, and cannot in any sense be con-
sidered as a song" [ have known
hooded crow to say "PapaW with
great correctness, aud what is more
remarkable. he invariably applied the
name to its proper owner-not the
noodles papa, but his masters. The
startling talks very roughly, indeed,
to his fellows, but he is one of the best
mimics we have, initiating the notes
of other birds, and even the human
voice, with great accuracy. Magpies
also can be taught to articulate with a
tolerable degree of accuracy. The
hooking bird, too, so well known in
some parts of the United States, has
no natural melody of his own, but
he contrives to copy in most faithful
manner the songs of nearly al his
feathered neighbors.
But it is little surprising to find
that the canary, so superbly endowed
by nature with musical taste and
skill, will coDdescend on occasion to
initiate the unmelodious tones of the
human voice, although the fact that he
does so is beyond dispute. A correspon-
dent of Land and Water'' mentions
canary owned by lady residing in
Stafford, near Bath, which was able
to pronounce several words with re-
markable distinctness. At the CON-
clusion of its song the bird nearly
always said, kiss, kiss, Miss Lizzie,
kiss, kiss !'-Miss Lizzie being the
daughter Of its owner; and, after re-
peating the words mere than once, a
new song was begun. 1t seems that
these words were acquired several
years ago, when the bird was quite
young, and during the moulting sea-
son, when its natural song would be
discontinued.
Curlously enough, the only cases |
nave known of talking eanaries have
occurred in the West of England, but
[ am not able to draw any conclusion
of value from that circumstance. 1t
may be mere coincidence, or there
may possibly be certain family of
canaries settled in the west country
whose peculiar gift it is to initiate,
with fair amount of accuracy, the
various intonations of the human
voice. A canary which was owned by
a lady in Weston-super-Mare was ac-
customed to hear its mistress, an
invalid, say, on conclusion of its song,
"Oh, beauty, beauty! Sing that
again !" These words the bird picked
up, and was soon able to repeat, but
its education made no further progress,
and no additional words were &C
quired. The short sentence, as in the
case of the Stafford bird, was never
uttered save after brilliant burst of
song.
1t is wholly incorrect to suppose
that no meaning is ever attached by
talking birds to such words or short
sentences as they may be able to pro-
nounce. The well-known case OF
the Edinburgh parrot, whose singular
accomplishments have been already
noticed in more than one periodical,
has settled this question once and
for ever. So far was this clever bird
above "mere parrot talk" that he
rarely spoke word which had not
direct relation to surrounding objects
or events. A strange dog introduced
into the room was greeted with loud
cries of "Put him out! Put him out!
Pm so frightened p Clergymen at
tending his numerous levees were DO
litely requested to "Gie DOT the
Psalm J" and, as this by itself would
SAVIOR somewhat Of habitual irrever-
ence on Polls part, 1t is only fair to
add that he was very particular at
meal-times in telling the assembled
family to "Say grace first "- Leisure
Hours.
A Romance in Two Chapters.
Chapter I. The first time George
and Mary met at Mrs. Dixon's garden