Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-07-03
\ M0THERLY PARROT.
Adopted a brood of Chickens and
Raised Them with Great Care.

Raised Them with Great Care.
/ New York Times.
Last spring says the veracious
woman, whose home is in the suburbs,
my children were presented by a
neighbor with Il hen and brood OF
chickens. The hen was placed in the
usual Slated box on the sunny lawn
at the rear of the house, and the little
animated balls of yellow down ran
about at will in front OF it. They
were frequently watched by jim, pet
parrot, whose cage WAS often on the
same patch of turf One day by acct
dent the hencOOp was overturned and
the unfortunate mother caught in it in
such a way as TO be strangled. The
suddenly made orphans, so long as the
hen lay there before them, kept up
their visits to her neighborhood, but
when, not long after the happening,
she was removed and the coop set up
again, it evidently had no attraction
for them.
ave were rather concerned as TO
what to do with the little chicks thus
deprived Of their natural protector,
but we need not have been. When
they found no one to answer the dis.
consulate peep, peep at the same
place, they looked about for another
home. The open door of Jim's cage
attracted them, and presently one Of
the boldest, after coquetting about the
door for several minutes, ventured in.
jim, on his perch, watched the in
truder with slanting eye that we dis
trusted, but we did the bird great in
justice. He remained motionless, as
if fearful to cause alarm while the
chick pecked at various bits OF food
littering the floor of the cage. En-
couraged by the evident success OF
this pioneer work, the other chicks
approached, and at last every one OF
them got inside. finishing every eata-
BILE scrap they found. Jim meanwhile
sat like a mslachite statue on his
perch, apparently unconscious OF what
was going on, though we could see
that nothing escaped that watchful
oblique glance.
when the chicks had devoured all
they could find, they went leisurely
out. We took the hint and put water
and food for them in Jim's cage, and
all the afternoon they made them
selves entirely at home. Jim got over
his rightly and seemed to enjoy the
invasion of his castle. He called
them several times with perfect i'm
itation OF the clucking Of hen, and
the chicks invariably responded.
AS night approached they went con-
tentedly to the cage and crouched
down on the floor to sleep. Jim
didn't quite know what was expected
of him then, but he acted according
to his lights. He settled himself on
his lowest perch and coaxed two or
three chicks up beside him, encourag-
ing them In their efforts to roost. In
few nights he had the whole brood
roosting in the cage IS contentedly as
they had ever done under their
mothers wing. From this time until
they were we'll grown Jim's quarters
were theirs, and, though he never
went out TO scratch food for them, he
saw his larder daily eaten bare by his
voracious adopted family without a
protes'.
"When they were big, long.legged
chickens, he evidently decided one
day that the time for protection and
hospitality was past. They were big
ger than himself and quite able 10
look after themselves, and he forcibly
intimated that they must do so by
driving them out of the cage and re-
fusing thereafter to permit one of
them to cross its threshold. To prove
that his previous conduct had been
voluntary and not inspired by any
sense of his inability to cope with the
invading army, not a mouthful OF food
or sip of water could these chickens
get from his domain after he had
undertaken to prevent them. AL
together we regarded it as a very cur
ious and interesting experiment"