The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-29
DO THE PARROTS SQUAWK?
YES, SAYS DIR. N. l.. WOOD, WITH
NUCH EMPHASIS.

No, Say the owners, Because They Are Re.
lined and Educated Birds and Have
Never zone TO Sea-StilI, They Are
Now Taken in When They Begin 10 Sing.
There are some young folk in Jefferson
avenue, near Nostrand, in Brooklyn, who
are learning to play the piano. Under
ordinary circumstances this Ia. somewhat
trying to the nerves of sensitive psrson 8
with an ear for melody. but under the pecu-
liar conditions prevailing now in Jefferson
avenue and the neighborhood the pianos
are regarded, even with amateurs at the
keys, as high class oPsra comoirsd with
the discord that has recently broken out
there, and that browns the piano tones.
DR.. Robert Lowell Wood Of 129 Hancock
street, from the rear Of whose Office the back
Yards Of q block Of other houses In Jefferson
avenue can be seen, decided yesterday to
have the noises abolished. He had Invoked
the power OF the Board-of Health and the
tenement house department, and was think
ing Of asking federal interference when he
recalled that there might be enough au-
thority vested in the police to have what he
regards as a nuisance abated. Then he
went to the telephone and called up the
police. Sergt. Harrington got a warm sort
Of message that, e~xpurgated ran something
like this:
This is DR.. Wood Of 100 Hancock street.
There are some parrots that are making a
| frightful noiss just back of my Office, and
annoying me and my patients. Will you
send a man around to suppress them?'
The sergeant said he would do so, and
Policeman Avery. B. Wells went to the doc
tors Office. The doctor said that the par
rots-he had never stopped to count them,
but he was sure there were at least five
like five hundred in his immediate neigh
~borhood-were hung out of the windows on
sunny days in their cages, and the moment
the sun touched them they began to squawk.
II they had only said something Ineligible
he would not have cared 40 much, hut they
chartered and ~squawked and laughed in an
idiotic and fearful parrot fashion.
The doctors patient with nervous dis
orders could not stand the racket, and the
doctor himself decided finally that neither
he nor the birds would have to go. Police
man Wells talked soothingly to the doctor
and then he went to the house where the
nearest and nosiest parrots were and asked
to SEQ the owners, who are women. The
policeman had to use much diplomacy,
mixed with politeness, before he could
induce the women to promise to take in
the birds when they began 70 get noisy,
Inc WOLleli ueC4dltl, WAN tiI'OINoh, ''ue
their parrots were refined and well educated
birds that never had been to sea, and whose
voices were as we'll cultivated as any par
rot's could be. The doctor evidently did not
have a highly musical sense, they said, or
he would not accuse the poor and i%nofen-
sive birds of squawking. 1t was true that
they did occasionally laugh, but even their
laugh did not lack an element Of melody.
There we're other parrots in Jefferson
avenue that might be improper at times,
but their parrots never were. Neverthc,,
less, the women took their parrots in, and
the neighborhood became serene enough
to give the young woman learning the piano
q chance.
The doctor said last night that he did
not believe that any one of the five parrots
or the chorus of 500 parrots was educated.
II they said anything he never bad been
able to make it out. 1t might be they were
swapping tropic jungle sentiments, but
they sounded in combination worse than a
big siren on an automobile.
sDo they ever swear, doctor?" the re-
porter asked.
mo. I'll say that they don't swear. I
do all the swearing"