The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-09-18
THE EDUCATION OF A PARROT.
Mention in History, but Not in Scripture
of the Talking Bird.

Mention in History, but Not in Scripture,
of the Talking Bird.
A large cage full of young Cuban
parrots in front of a Washington street
store attracts attention. The birds are
from 3 to 5 months old and are just
the right age to be taught to make
bright remarks and ask for crackers.
They are beautiful in plumage and
seem to be in good condition generally.
A lady who understands parrots talked
to a reporter about them.
when bought my parrot Polly
Of course her name is Polly-she
couldn't talk at oil. But in five months
she could say good morning. good
night, 'tra-la-la,' 4 guess yes and
she's my Annie, I'm her Joe, she's my
that's as far as she could go in that
song-and many other things. When
parrot once learns anything thor
oughly 1t Is never forgotten. They
should be made to get each sentence
learned perfectly before anything new
is said to them. Some parrots, good
many, In fact, never learn to talk at
ALL"
Parrots require but very little care,
and make pleasing pets. They must
be protected against dampness, and no
food that has grain of salt in it must
be allowed in their cage.
Parrots are of great antiquity
Ctesias, who wrote a century before
Aristotle, refers plainly to parrots when
he writes In his "Judica" of "a bird
with purple face and black beard,
about the size of sparrow hawk,
which could speak the Indian Ian
guage."
1t is strange that no representation
OF parrot has as yet been discovered
in Egyptian art And do you know
that the Bible makes no reference to
parrots2 The first parrots were brought
| to the notice of Greece, and later to
Rome, by Alexander on his world con.
quering expedition. He brought them
| from India. In fact, there is species
named after that ambitious young gen,
tleman who "sighed for more worlds tC
conquer" 1t is the p Alexander
Palaornis, if you care about the exact
name.
That Africa had parrots was not dis
covered until much later. Explorers
of Nero found the first African pol
lies" beyond the limits of upper Egypt
These birds were highly priced by the
luxury loving Romans from the first
!. The moralists of the time looked a
them askance More than one famous
classical poet wrote odes to them. Th'
Roman parrots enjoyed life. They wer'
lodged in tortoise shell cages with sill
yer and ivory wires.
But, unfortunately, they were alsC
occasionally esteemed as table delica
cies. One emperor is said to hav,
tossed them to his lions as tidbits. Witt
the fall of the Roman empire parrot
became an unknown quantity almos
until the close of the Fifteenth century
when their beautiful plunage and con
versational charms again made then
popular Indianapolis News.
Tea aud Old China TeapOts in America
Nor can you implicitly rely upon tn
traditional age of piece of china
Many persons do not realize for hoy
short time we have had tea, and
have been shown many teapot love
200 years old" or brought over in tn
Maytiower, some even 300 years old.
, Pepys in his diary wrote in 1861 of tie
as "a China drink of which had neve
, drunk before" 1t cost, in 1866, sixt
shillings a pound, and l can hardl
think with tea at that price that on
frugal Pilgrim Fathers had much us
for teapots. OF course the marks o
, these aged teapots also prove them
be of much more recent manufacture
and in point of fact we know that te
was not used in America until 1710.-
, Alice Morse Earle in Scribners.