"You mean the one that kept up such an incessant talking?"
"Yes," Frank answered; "he rattled away in Siamese, and he called out 'Boy!' two or three times; and it sounded so much like a human voice that I thought, at first, it was some one calling a servant."
"That was a mineur, or minor," the Doctor explained; "and it is said to surpass the parrot in its ability to talk. He learns very easily, and is as great an imitator as the American mocking-bird. The one at the consulate can say a great many things in Siamese, but he does not yet know much English. A friend of mine had one of these birds that was the source of great amusement; he would whistle, in exact imitation of his master, and he could sing certain bits of music without making a mistake. When my friend first obtained him, the bird could only speak the native language; but in a little while he picked up several phrases in English, and pronounced them perfectly.
"One thing he did was to call the servant, as he had heard his owner. As you have seen, the way of summoning servants is by shouting 'Boy!' and on hearing this word the servant comes. My friend's bird had caught up the word, and every little while he would shout it so as to deceive the servant, and bring him to his master. Naturally the servant was annoyed at being disturbed, and so my friend told him that when he wanted him he would call 'Boy! boy!' and he need not come when he heard the word only once. In three days the bird was doing the same thing, and deceiving the servant. Then it was arranged that my friend would strike on the table or clap his hands, as they do in Turkey and Syria. This was too much for the mineur; he found that he could not amuse himself as before. The one at the consulate is learning the same trick, and amusing himself by imitating what he hears spoken around him."
Frank wished he could take one of these birds home with him; but the Doctor said it would be too much trouble to do so. The mineur is of tropical origin, and the climate of the Northern States of America is not suited to him. "The chances are," said he, "that if you took a dozen mineurs to carry to America, you would lose three-fourths of them on the way, and the others would not live more than a few months after getting there."
As the Doctor closed his remark about the mineur, the boat touched the landing in front of the hotel, and their morning's excursion came to an end.