19 SEPTEMBER 1925, Page 18

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

SIR,—With reference to the letter from " H. A. W." on " The Sense of Hearing in Birds," in your issue just to hand, it may interest some of your readers to know some facts about a grey parrot we have, now a little over two years old.

On several occasions when we were seated at table and our younger boy had not yet arrived, we observed that Polly called out, " Come away, T , dinner is ready." The boy thus summoned presently walked in from the street. This led me, after it had several times happened, to make closer obser- vation when she next called out thus, and on going to the window I saw my son just arrived at the gate, showing she must have heard and recognized his footfall on the pavement before she had any chance of seeing him. This bird has developed a most surprising degree of intelligence in several lines, of which I should be pleased to communicate the facts to any reader of this sufficiently interested to inquire.—I am,