The morning news., 1899-01-19
A Remarkable Parrot.

Lady Broome. in CornhEl Magazine.
There was one little gray end red parrot,
however, from the West coast of Africa.
which was different from the ordinary
screaming green and yellow parrot. This
was certainly the cleverest little creature
of its kind / have ever seen. Dingy and
shabby as to plumage, and with twisted
leg, its powers of mimicry were unsur-
passed. 1t picked up everything Il heard
directly and my only regret was that IL
appeared to forget its phrases very quick
ly. Before II had been two days in the
house. it took me In half-a-dozen. times by
initiating exactly the impatient peck al a
glass door of some tame peacocks, who al
ways melted themselves to 1--WE O'clock
err" 1 used to go to the door and open IT,;
of course to find no peacock there for they
were punctuality itself, and never came
near the house at any other time. After
the pecks-exactly reproduced as If on
glass-came an impatient note, followed by
the exact cry of an indignant peacock.
believe that gray parrot had the utmost
contempt for my mental powers, and de-
lighted In victmizing me.
/ was constant sufferer I'm those days
from malaral feverl and when GONZALES
cent and comfortably settled on my sofa
in the drawing room, the parrot would
first gently cough once or twice, then sigh,
and finally, in weak voice, call, "Garde,
Garde." This was to a functionary who
lived in the deep verandas and whose
mission In life seemed to be the regulating
of the heavy outside blinds made of split
bamboo. The next sound would be the
awkward shuffiing of heavy boots (for the
"Garde" usually went barefoot except
when in uniform and on duty, followed
by Madame" Then my voice again.
"Levez lie rideau." "Bien, Grande Ma
dame" Then you heard the creak of
the pulleys as the curtain was raised, fol-
lowed by the Gardes tramping away
again, all exactly Initiated.
The A. D. C.'s way of calling his "boy''
generally a middle-aged NAM was also
rendered, beginning in a very
mild and amiable voice, rising louder as
no boy" answered, and finally a stento-
rian boy produced very frightened and
hurried, "Ci Monster lie Capitaine, 'ci."
! grieve to say this performance generally
ended with a confused and shuffling sound
as OF a scrimmage.
There used also to be an orderly on duty
outside the Governors office, who, once
upon a time, was afflicted with a violent
cold in the head This malady, and his
primitive methods of dealing with il,
made him a very unpleasant neighbor, so
his excellency requested the private secre-
tary 70 ask for another orderly without
a cold In the head. OF course. this was inn
mediately done, and the desired change
made, but not before Miss Polly had taken
notes. Next day / was startled by the
most violent outburst of sneezing and
coughing In the veranda, followed by other
trying grounds. / next heard a plaintive
and deeply injured voice from the Cow
ernor's offce-it must be remembered that
every door and window Is always wide
open in tropic house.
II thought l asked for that man to be
changed"
This brought the private secretary hur-
riedy out of his ROOM to be confronted by
a small gray parrot, who wound up the
by a sort of sob Of exhaustion
and "Ah mon Diet" the real orderly
standing by looking as IL he was consid-
ering whether or not he ought to arrest
the culDrit