The bird’s silence was not remarkable, as song birds will seldom sing freely for some time after being taken to a new place; the speech on going home certainly seemed to indicate intelligence. A gentleman had taught his parrot to say, “Get your gun, John,” which was well remembered one night by the bird, for burglars entered the house, and Poll, hearing a noise, screamed out at the top of her voice, “Get your gun, John,” awakening her owner, and at the same time putting the robbers to flight.
An Englishman describing another wonderful parrot hanging in a cage from the window of a house which he often passed, said: “It cries ‘Stop thief’ so naturally that every time I hear it I always stop.”
It is very essential that the trainer should be on good terms with the parrot, in order to secure success, as they will not readily learn for one for whom they entertain any dislike. Under favorable circumstances not only do they copy the words of their trainer but even his peculiarities of voice. Buffon mentions a gray parrot which was taught to speak by a sailor during a voyage from Guinea, and acquired so exactly his harsh voice and cough as to be frequently mistaken for him. It was afterward instructed by a young man, and although it then heard no voice but that of its new teacher, the former lessons were never forgotten, and it often amused the bystanders by suddenly passing from a soft and agreeable voice to its old hoarse sea tone.
Not only do parrots learn to imitate the human voice but also that of animals. This is more difficult to teach owing to the difficulty of securing the sounds for the bird to copy. A bird of good powers will usually pick up this knowledge if it has an opportunity of frequently hearing the animals. The blue and yellow macaw, though it does not readily learn words (except “Jacob,”) seems to have a talent for imitating the bleating of sheep, the mewing of cats, and the barking of dogs, with great exactness.
It not only has the power of learning but often shows a desire to do so. It continually repeats the syllables which it has heard, and in order not to be misled in memory, endeavors to cry down all sounds which disturb it. So deep an impression do its lessons make that sometimes it dreams aloud. When young its memory is so good as to retain whole verses and sentences. Rhodiginus mentions a gray parrot which could repeat the Apostles’ Creed without a slip, and was on that account bought by a cardinal for a hundred crowns.
In Scotland a species of parrot is employed to call the names of the stations on the railway. Each bird is taught the name of the station at which it is placed, and this name it shouts on the approach of the train.
Several birds besides parrots possess the power of talking. Magpies are taught in Germany to imitate not only the human voice but many striking sounds. They are taken from the nest when quite young, otherwise this cannot be accomplished. A clergyman in Paris is said to have had two sparrows which were able to repeat the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh commandments. It produced a highly comic effect when, in their quarrels over their food, one of them would gravely admonish the other—“Thou shalt not steal.”
Ravens often talk with considerable fluency. In Thugaingia the traveler on entering an inn is frequently saluted with the appellations, “thief, rascal,” uttered by one of these birds. Some trainers with a view to facilitate the utterance of articulate sounds, are accustomed to cut what is called the string of the tongue, an operation which certainly attains its end in some measure, though ravens often speak on which it has not been performed.
