Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-09-28

| Well, this raven would worry a monkey
that used to be chained up in the yard
! all the sum Der- time IN this way
| Whenever he got anything he thought
the monkey would like, he ns.d to put
| 1t down within an inch or two of his
| reach, then say, "Get itl' when Master
Jacko would make an Intellectual effort
to get at it ana then retire. Master
Raven would then put it an inch near
er, and say ''Try againl" This kind of
thing went on until they fell out, and
had regular fight, the poor monkey
almost invariably getting the worst of
/ it.
! Ravens are excellent takers. heard
a very good story the other day about
this intelligent bird. 1t appears he
had the run of large park, where
number of rocks and crows and davis
used to assemble round him. When
there was sufficiently large crowd to
suit his purpose, our friend the raven
would suddenly bawl, "HalIop The
sound of the human voice among them
naturally terrified these wary birds,
and sent them off in every direction, to
the complete qualification of the raven,
who theu had the field to himself.
l have made little sketch OF
mythical story / read some yesre ago
which is worth recording of Apollo
and the raven. In the olden days.
when Apollo had entered into
the first state of his perpet-
ual youth, he chose his favorite
bird. Jupiter, his father, took the
eagle; Minerva, his sister, took the owl;
Juno, his stepmother, chose the pea
cock; Venus, preferred the dove; he
himself the raven. In those days the
raven was one of the most beautiful of
birds, for its plumage was as white as
snow, Its baak was rosy pink, its eyes
were blue, and its voiSe surpassed the
nightingale in melody.
There was on earth q grove sacred
to Apollo. The trees were vines, and
! figs and roses stretched themselves up
| their trunks, and, bending over, for m
ed an arbor, in the midst of which the
| fountain Helicon sparkled. 1t so fell
out that Apollo thirsted for the waters
of his own sacred fountain so he called
, the raven to him, and. giving the bird
his cup, bade him descend to the earth
and bring him some of the cool water.
The raven took the cup and sought the
fountain.
Now, the raven was a very vain bird,
aud if he had been formerly proud of
his looks and voice, he was ten times
prouder since he had been the favorite
Q of Apollo So he stood at the edge of
the fountain admiring his beauty, and
then burst into song, extolling hl m
self and his patron. Then he thought
he would refresh himself with the fruit;
but it was not quite ripe, and, after
tasting several punches of grapes and
g., /, IT, %
the morning, when they might be
ripened.
I In fine, he idled away his time, until
he remembered ne had been absent for
several days So he filed the cup,
and, seeing a brilliant serpent gliding
~ Tie ,...s-, seized it IN his Oessk and
carried it with him. He came before
Apollo, and made the excuse that he
had found a serpent poiluting the
sacred waters, and that he had just
vanquished it after com at of seven
days. But Apollo seized the lying
bird and hurled him to the earth. He
few Immediately to contemplate him
sslf at the fountain; but the first glance
revealed black plumage, and when he
uttered an exclamation of horror, his
voice had lost all its melody.
! A very amusing bird ls the piping
crow. The one | speak of has evident
" been brought up in the poultry
yard, for he initiates and mimics the
fowls, and the crow of the old barn
door cock. But these birds do not ap-
pear to catch hold of the human voice
so well, although they correctly initiate
any sound.
| Master Maggie, you see, Is up to his
usual tricks, always attracted by an ir-
resistible desire TO steal anything that
looks bright and slitterlng. But he Is
also an excellent tslker, and a very
amusing bird. The title of the bird is
a compound of "mag" and ''pie, the
latter being the primary name and the
former added. l suppose We get the
word "pie" from the word "pica, or
from the ancient British name
| ''piogen," and the syllable mag is
as probably addes. on account of the
chattering propensities of this iudivid
ual for the word ''msg" is used in many
parts of England to signify an amusing
talk; so that the whole word simply
means ''chattering pie, which, 1t must
be admitted, is quite appropriate.
Some people fancy that the bird is
called pie on account OF its pied col
or; but that is a question, as magples
were known long before colors were
mixed Shakespeare called the bird
.'magot-pie, from which magpie may
possibly be derived. Mdgot in French
signifies "monkey;" and as he is very
monkey among birds, it is very sp-
propriate name.
Master Jsckdsw is running away with
spoon, which he does not appear at all
anxious to give up. He only ejscus
lates, What for?" when demonstrated
with,
In the sketch OF the two mynsh
birds, one is saying Glow are your"
the other coughing.
Now we come to the startling. l think
there are very few of our readers who
know what powers this very pretty
little bird has. He belongs to the
crow tribe, OF which he is the smallest
resident here. They are great favor
ties with fanciers, and when taken
young, can learn anything. If taken
from tie nest, you Can bring them up
well on little bread and milk and a
few mealvorms; and as to their ills,
why, they have scarcely any, as the
crow tribe do not lave any OF the all
ments that singing bir,s usually suffer
with, But of course for all such mat
ers there are plenty of excellent books
10 refer to upon the management and
treatment OF cage birds. Naturally, my
only object an this little sketch is to
open up SUBJECT which 1 have not
seen treated before, and which must
be OF interest to many of my read
ers.
Our sketch represents Master Star
ling sitting on the back of his mistress's
chair, evidently very much interested
in the tea-table talk going on, and
putting in a word or two to keep up the
conversation when it flags q little. as 1
haveoften seen him do at my friends
house.
The grey parrot VIC must say some
thing ahnnt alfhnnrh of course he il q