A PARROT - STORY.
[TO TYR EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—I am much interested in the letter in the Spectator of December 7th, describing the sympathy shown by a macaw to the writer when a child. My experience of parrots, how- ever, leads me to endorse your opinion, that birds of that genus have not generally a sympathetic nature. That they are gifted with great powers of personal affection and of jealousy, is, I think, equally certain. I have had a large and beautiful specimen of the blue-fronted Amazon parrot for the past eight years, and the attachment to myself of this other- wise rather fierce bird is exactly like that of a most faithful dog, and, like a dog, he daily watches for my return home, giving a very pronounced chuckle and rushing up and down his perch the moment I appear in sight, some two hundred yards away. Though he will bite any one else, he is perfectly gentle with me, and I can handle him as I choose, and even lay him on his back in a dish, and thus exhibit him to. admiring friends. His favourite perching-place is on my knee ; but his jealousy does not allow any one to come very near me at such times. When I was confined to my bed for some weeks with influenza in the early part of this year, he evidently knew that I was in the house, and that something was the matter, for he moped and put away his food. One day they opened his cage door to see what he would do, upon which he jumped down, ran across the parlour floor and the hall, and began to mount the stairs by the aid of his beak. Arrived at the top, he bustled into my room, climbed up the bed and on to my shoulder, where he sat trumpeting excitedly, and defying any one to remove him. After this, I had his cage brought daily into my room, and he remained there all day, perfectly happy, and ate his food as usual.
I have another parrot—a grey African—but he is of quite a different type. He talks splendidly, is of a most jolly, rollicking nature, and though given to biting if he gets a chance, it is purely out of f an, and he is friendly with every one. Of course the two hate each other heartily.—I am,
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