The Savannah morning news., 1903-03-28
ago for throwing scraps of food on the
floor, Commander said:

ago for throwing scraps of food on the
floor, Commander said:
81 didn't do that: it was Dick"
Dick is a canary that occupies the
next cage to Commander Whenever
Commander does anything that should
bring censure it tries to blame Dick
Commanders owner says that It is
constantly coming out with new re-
marks, which show that it is a think
ing bird.
Commander is very much interested
in the telephone, and one of it's IA
Vorite amusements is to initiate with
remarkable eXactness the bell of "a
telephone. and then proceed to hold
a conversation with some imaginary
person. 1t always ends this conversa-
ton by making an engagement to
meet the person downtown. If any one
speaks during one of these imaginary
conversations it will say:
Hush! Don't you see I'm talking
over the telephone?"
Commander has many other interest
ing tricks. 1t will initiate the pop
ping of champagne corks. will bark
at it's owners dog until the dog is in
rage and will howl at the cat until
its patience is exhausted
According to the owner of these birds
their training is the result of the
hardest kind of work, and must be
conducted along the same lines that
a child's training is. They are brought
here from Africa. To be of any use
they must be taken from the nests
when babies. When the babies get
here they are generally a few months
Old Nevertheless they are worth from
$15 to 500 apiece. II takes from four
to six years to complete the train
ing. Commander is 6 years old. He
will probably live to be rs.
The first thing taught the baby par
rots is the alphabet Then they are
taught to count. They are taught the
meaning of words, and gradually, ac-
cording to the trainer, they learn to
think for themselves.
Next to the African grays, this dealer
says, the best parrots are the Mexican
double yellow heads. They don't do so
much thinking, but are great musicians,
and sing the words and music of pop
ular airs so well that a person who
couldn't see them would be certain that
it was human being singing.
They learn monologues and in the COL
lection with the grays is one Irish COM
edian of great ability. It's dialect is per-
feet. Other clever musicians are the
bullfinches which can be taught to
whistle grand opera airs instead of de-
voting all of their time to trills up and
down the bar like so many canary birds.
In this collection, too, are the only
pair of lotus birds in this country. They
are beautiful creatures. gentle, lovable
and clever They come from the Mo-
lucca Islands, and this pair can sing. do
cakewalks and talk. They are very af-
fectionate couple, and where one goes
in the cage the other follows. They are
very fond Of kissing each other and are
far and away the happiest married cou-
pie in the collection.
AS to swearing parrots, the largest
parrot dealer in this city said to a Sun
reporter the other day.
There are not half so many swearing
parrots In this city as there are min
isters' wives who want them. This
sounds like joke, but it isn't. I have
standing orders from ministers wives
for parrots that will swear. The hard
er they swear the better the ministers
wives seem to like it,.
"As matter of fact parrots are not
naturally bad. They don't like to
swear and it's only when cuss words
are drilled into them and they are
constantly thrown with profane per-
sons that they are wicked. Therefore
try as l will I cannot keep the supply
of swearing parrots up to the de-
mdnd
81 cannot explain why minister's
wives want swearing parrots, but I
imagine it's because they get so much
plety at home that they long for a
change"