POLL PARROT.
We were staying for some months at a seaport town in France, manyvessels used to come in from different parts of the world; and Isuppose the sailors brought with them all sorts of animals and birds,for the houses looking on the quay where the vessels were moored werealmost entirely shops of birds, monkeys, etc., etc. It was most amusingto walk along the quay, and look at all the live creatures that werethere exposed for sale. Such a chattering of monkeys of all shapes andsizes, such a twittering and singing from every imaginable species ofsmall birds, such a screaming and chattering from the parrots andmacaws, and such fun in peeping into the cages of white mice andferrets. We often wished very much to buy a monkey; but Mamma did notfancy it, and said they were uncertain ill-tempered beasts, and that weshould be constantly bitten if we had one. First, we longed for thisbird, then for that squirrel, then for a cage of white mice, and so on;indeed I believe we quite tormented Mamma with requests to walk alongthe quay of animals, as we called it. At last we set our affectionsupon a grey parrot, the smoothest and handsomest among the large numberexposed for sale. We never heard her say anything, it is true; but wethought that an advantage, as she would not have learnt to swear andtalk like the sailors, and we should teach her to say just what wepleased.
The price of the parrot was rather high, because of her size andbeauty, and we longed for her many weeks before we were her masters;but at last she was placed in our possession as a new year's gift, and,in addition, a nice cage with a swing, and tin dishes for her food, allthe wood work being carefully bound with tin, to secure it from herformidable beak.
Cage and parrot were carried with us on our return to England, and shesoon became a great pet. She was not at first very tame; but by muchpetting, and by leaving the door of her cage constantly open, so thatshe did not feel herself a prisoner, she gradually became morefriendly. The first sign of love to any of us was after my sister'sshort absence of a few days at a friend's house. When she returned, wewere talking together in the hall, and Poll's cage being in anadjoining room, she heard her voice, and recognising it, she came downfrom her cage, and gave notice of her arrival at my sister's feet byher usual croak; she flapped her wings, and gave every sign of pleasureat seeing her again. She did not, however, extend her amiability to anyone but myself, sister, and Mamma; she was still savage to strangers,and would bite fiercely if touched, but if we offered our wrists, shewould step soberly on, allow us to scratch her head, stroke her back,push back her feathers to look at her curious little ears, and inreturn she would lay her beak against our cheeks, and make a cluckingnoise as if she meant to kiss us. She used to waddle all about the roomwith her turned-in toes, and climbed up tables and chairs just as shepleased. She would get upon Mamma's knee by scrambling up her dress,holding it tight in her beak. When we were writing or drawing, sheenjoyed sitting on the table, though she meddled sadly with our things,biting our pencils in pieces, tearing paper, and so on, and once inparticular, she terrified us for her own safety by opening every bladeof a sharp penknife, and flourishing it about in her claws as if intriumph. We had some difficulty in getting it from her grasp withoutcutting ourselves or hurting her. She was a famous talker, called usall by name, whistled and barked when the dog came into the room;called "Puss, puss!" and mewed when the cat showed itself, sang severalbits of songs, and asked for fruit and food of different sorts. Wenever could teach her to sing through a whole tune. I never heard aparrot get beyond a few bars; and I wonder what is the reason that theywill learn the commencement of half-a-dozen different songs, but stillcannot remember any whole. I do think a parrot's voice and utterance isone of the most extraordinary of things, for it always repeats a wordin the peculiar voice of the person who taught it; and, instead ofclosing its beak or touching the roof of its mouth with its tongue, inorder to articulate, it invariably opens its mouth wide when it speaks,and its tongue is never used at all; yet it will pronounce m's, b's,p's, and t's as plainly as any human being. We could always tell whohad taught our Poll any word or song, from the similarity of voice thatshe adopted. Her sleeping-place was for some time on the top of achair-back in my sister's bedroom. When we were leaving thesitting-room to go upstairs at night, Poll used to waddle down from thecage and come to my sister, who held her wrist down for her to mount,and having been conveyed upstairs and placed on the floor, she mountedof her own accord to her sleeping perch, gave all her feathers a goodshake, and settled her head for the night.
Very early in the morning, she used to commence her toilet. Suchscratchings and smoothings of her feathers, such picking and cleaningof her feet and legs; and having arranged her dress for the day, shewould come down, take a turn or two about the room, and then look at mysister to see if she were awake. If not stirring, Poll used to clamberup on the bed by means of the curtain or counterpane, get quietly onthe pillow, and examine her eyes closely. If no wink was perceptible,Poll would gently and cautiously lift up an eyelid, pinching it softlyin her beak, then go to the other eye and do the same; then she wouldwait a little bit, saying, "Hey? hey?" as if to ask whether hermistress was not yet properly roused. Then she would again work away atthe eyelids, till my sister could no longer refrain from laughing. Sheused to feign being asleep every morning, in order to amuse herselfwith Poll's proceedings.
I wished to try having my eyelids opened by Poll in the same manner,and one night took the bird into my own room; but she did not approveof this change of quarters, and instead of going quietly to sleep, madesuch a croaking and grinding of teeth on her chair-back, that I wasglad to carry her back to my sister's room. Indeed, although she wasvery friendly with me, she did not manifest the same attachment astowards my sister and mother, apparently preferring ladies' society.
While Poll was with us, we went another journey into France, and tookthe parrot with us in a basket. It was a stormy night when we crossedfrom Southampton, and Poll in her basket was placed at the foot of mysister's berth, and no further attention was paid her. The cabin wasvery full of people, and numbers had to lie on the floor, there notbeing sufficient berths or sofas. In the middle of the night, theinmates of the ladies' cabin were all startled by a scream from an oldlady who was stretched on the floor.
"Stewardess! Here! Here! Some dreadful thing is biting me. I havereceived a shocking bite on the leg. Do search for the creature,whatever it is."
So the stewardess came and looked, and could find nothing.
My sister, who had looked out of her shelf at the old lady's cry,immediately divined what it was, seeing that Poll's basket had rolledoff the berth to the floor, and she having gnawed a hole in the basket,had put out her beak and bitten the first thing with which it came incontact.
When the stewardess came to look for the monster, the basket hadrolled, with the motion of the ship, to the other side of the cabin,and not finding a sea voyage pleasant, she put forth her beak again.
"Oh! bless me! What can that be?" cried another passenger. "Somethingbit me. Do find it, stewardess."
Then came another lurch, and away rolled Poll in her basket; and no onesuspected a rather shabby old basket of containing anything but perhapsa pair of slippers, or a brush and comb, or some such articles. So poorPoll rolled about in her prison, inflicting bites on several legs andarms, my sister meanwhile in agonies of laughter on her shelf, and notdaring to say who was the real offender, lest Poll should be turned outof the cabin.
At last the stewardess said that she supposed it must be rats, and sheran away at the entreaties of the poor victims on the floor to fetchthe steward to search for the rats. Whilst she was gone, my sisterslipped down from her berth, and took possession of Poll's basket. Shehad scarcely retreated with it in safety, when the stewardess returnedwith the steward; and rather an angry altercation ensued, the maninsisting that there was not a rat in the ship, and the injuredpassengers insisting that sharp bites could not be made by nothing atall. However, after a long dispute, he begged them all to move from thefloor, and made a regular search.
My sist
er was all the time in the greatest alarm, lest Poll shouldthink proper to croak or sing "Nix my dolly," or otherwise to makeknown her presence. As luck would have it, however, Poll was either toosea-sick or too angry to say anything, and the steward announced thatno live thing was in the cabin, and that the ladies had been dreaming.
"But bites in a dream, don't bleed," retorted an angry old lady,holding up to view a pocket handkerchief which indeed wore a murderousappearance.
This being unanswerable, the steward could only shrug his shoulders andretreat from the Babel of voices in the ladies' cabin; and soon after,my sister had the pleasure of landing, with Poll undiscovered and safein her old basket, and we are ignorant whether the old lady ever foundout what it was that had bitten her.
During our journey, Poll often caused great amusement, by suddenlyshouting or singing as we were jogging along in a diligence or slowlysteaming on a river, thereby astonishing and alarming our fellowpassengers; nor did she forget, when occasion offered, to make good useof her strong beak.
At one place we were entering a town late at night, and the place beinga frontier town, our luggage was all strictly examined by thecustom-house officers before we were permitted to enter the gates. Allhaving been passed and paid for, we remounted the diligence; my sisterwas the last. She had her foot on the step, when one of the men rudelypulled her back, asking why she had not shown her basket. She saidthere was nothing in it but a bird, but the man declared he must look;and seeing that my sister was unwilling to open it, he imagined therewas something valuable and contraband in it, so roughly dragging it outof her hands, he tore open the lid, and thrust in his hand. Poll gave aloud croak, and the man rather quickly withdrew his hand, with athousand vociferations at the bird and the basket and my sister. I mustconfess I was delighted to see that Poll had made her beak nearly meetin the surly fellow's finger.
When my sister had regained her basket, and we had left the gate, welavished much praise on Poll for her discriminating conduct on thisoccasion. She would not have bitten my hand had I put it into thebasket; how did she know that the hand was a stranger's?
When we arrived at our destination in the south of France, Poll enjoyedthe novelty as much as any one. Now she revelled in the abundance oforanges and other fruits, eating just the best part, and flinging awaythe rest with lavish epicurism. And how she basked in the hot sun, andclimbed about the cypress and olive trees in the garden, biting thebark and leaves, and almost I think believing that she was again in herwild birth-place, wherever that may have been! She accompanied us insafety on our homeward journey, went to Ireland with us; and wheneverwe travelled, Poll went too.
At one time she took an erroneous notion into her head, that she couldfly; now this was an impossibility, for her wings were very short andsmall, and her body very large and heavy. Whether this had chanced fromher unnatural life in a house, or from early cutting of her wings, I donot know, but she could not support herself in the air, even from thetable to the ground. However, she thought she could, and on oneoccasion she tried to fly, when perched on the top bannister of a largewell staircase of four flights. Down she came like a lump of lead onthe floor below, and when we ran to pick her up, poor Poll was gasping,lying on her back, with her eyes rolling about in a fearful manner. Wethought she would die, but we put some water in her mouth, blew in herface and did what we could to revive her, and gradually she recovered.
But this lesson was lost upon her. A few days after, she tried to flyout of a window on the first floor, and came down in the same heavyway, on the flagged pavement before the door. This time her head waswounded, and bled, and she seemed stupid for some days after; but sherecovered and lived long after that. Probably these falls had injuredher brain, for at last she began to tumble off her perch, as if giddy,and then her head swelled very much, and she died in a sort of fit.
I have seen other parrots who were better talkers than ours; but Inever saw one so tame, and so fond of her own master and mistress, sheused to come to meet us like a dog, when we came into the house, afterbeing absent for walks or rides, knew our times for rising and going tobed, called us separately by our names, and really showed muchintelligence.
Birds, in general, are, I think rather stupid, and do not understandanything, but what their own instinct tells them; but parrots seem toknow the meaning of the words they learn: and if others do not, I amsure that our Poll did.