Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-07-20
PARROT STORIES.

iIlDt5s lltlt dlt hOuC NhlNh AtANC DCCL
greater favorites. and have been re
garded with a greater degree of genu.
inc attachment, than parrots. The
beauty OF their plumage, with it:
wealth and variety of gorgeous colors
their symmetry of form, aud then
gracefulness of manner, would alone
have been sufficient TO give them theil
popularity. But the closest link they
have established with our affections 49,
of course, found in their wonderful
faculty. for the repetition of spoken
words and various fam liar sounds, to-
gether with their possession, in many
instances, OF q reasoning power which
suggests that they are not always mere
imitators, but really understand the
general sense of what they say. Com
bined with the power of speech, the
fond ATTACHING mt which they are capa-
BILE of showing towards those who feed
or are otherwise kind to them leads to
their being among the most favored, as
they seem to be also among the best
fitted, companions of human beings.
This place of honor in the animal
world they have held for many centu-
ries. There was, indeed, a time when
they were regarded IN India and else.
where as sacred; and anybody who
dared to injure one of them was re-
garded as guilty of a dreadful crime,
IL is true that since then they have
fallen somewhat from their high estate.
and that in this more degenerate age
the common Amazon parrot has been
shot in great numbers in the eastern
parts of Brazil for the prosac purpose
of making particular kind of soup, to
which the natives are partial; while the
naturalist Gould wakes quite eloquent
when he sounds the praises of par
akeet pie. But, in our own country,
though we do not so either to the
one extreme of holding them sacred,
or to the other extreme of putting them
INTO pies, parrots still occupy a place
of honor in our households; and we'll
behaved "Pretty Polp' who has been
duly instructed in the accomplish
ments of her kind, is still the source
of as great a degree of pleasure as
ever.
Yet people who do not travel far
beyond the limits of their own land
fail to see the parrot TO the best advan'
tage. Their acquaintance with the
bird is chiefly confined to seeing il
either the solitary occupant of q wire
cage, over which it climbs with n slow
ness suggestive of limited powers of
motion, or else standing on an uncov-
cred perch, to which it is attached by
a chain, in company with a group of
others. In their native condition,
however, the parrots are found
in vast assemblies, which are often a
thousand or more in number, and, seen
clustered together and talking in loud
and excited tones on the trees of some
dark forest or sequestered swamp,
or taking long, though low,
flights through the air to their favor
lite watering places, with the sun
shining on their brilliant plumage,
they present a spectacle OF great
magnifcence. In Van Diemen's
Land and the islands of the Bass
Straits, parakeets are as numerous as
sparrows are in this country, aud
are so great that the ground seems to
be literally covered with them. Com
pared with the gorgeous scene which
they must present in these circum-
stances, even such a collection as may
DO found at the geological Gardens in
London falls altogether into insignii-
once.
LIE Valiant, in his description of
the habits of the PsitdchuS iHfuscdtts,
says that every bird keeps Loyalty to
its own mate, and at daybreak the
whole of the colony located in a par
ticular district asse mble with a great
noise, perch on one or more dead trees,
according to their number, and expose
their plumage to the first rays of the
rising sun, for the purpose of drying
their feathers, which will have become
soaked in the heavy dews of the night.
Altogether, something like l7G EiI ds
of parrots have been enumerated as in
habiting various parts of the globe,
and there are, naturally, great varia-
tions in size, plumage, and powers in
the different species. In size they
range from birds not much bigger than
a thrush to others such as the great
green macaw, and the red and blue
macaw, which measure forty inches in
length, the tail alone being nearly two
feet long. In their plumage they may
have all the colors of the rainbow, or
one color only, while in accomplish
ments they range from the deafenIng
shrleks of macsws to the "gentle soft
warblIng kind of song" of the grass or
zebra parakeet of Aust ALA, and the
marvellous powers OF speech of the true
parrots But the most talented of all
these varieties is the grey parrot,
which IS q native Of West Africa, and,
when taken young, and well trained,
displays some really wonderful gifts
In the days of sailing ships, the sail
ors who brought the birds home were
able to spend good deal of time III
teaching them before they arrived
here; but the shortening of the voy-
ages, owing to the powerful steamers
now in use, has led TO the education of
the parrots being less advanced when
they reach England than was formerly
the case. On the other hand, however,
their vocabulary of sailors expletlves
Is not so extensive, and this is some
consolation for the falling eff in other
respects, one oldlty about parrots be-
ing that when once they learn really
wicked words they never seem to for
get them, and the most moral training
never completely frees their good man
ners from the corruption of evil COM
municGtions.
Many parrots will live from twenty
to thirty years, and LIE Valiant men
age Of 93. 1t was the property of an
Amsterdam merchant, and ii talked
remarkably well. 1t would fetch its
masters night-cap and slippers, and
would call out ii any stranger
came into Il e shop when no one vas
there to serve screaming until some
body came. 1T had good memory,
and easily learned sentences in Dutch;
hut at 60 this faculty began to fail, at
90 the moultin2 was irregular, and at
90 the bird was dccrepit, blind and
voiceless, generally sinking INTO kind
of lethargy, in which condition 1t final
ly died.
Another famous rot was that of
Colonel O'Kelly, III whose family 1t
had been for fifty years, beng so much
thought of that one hhndred guineas
were refused for it. Tho accomplish
ments of this bind, whose death will be
found recorded in The GentLeman's