74 ANECDOTES OF PARROTS. "I heard of a somewhat parallel occurrence in a country town where I was once staying at a friend's house," said Mrs. Warden. "There were two old ladies lived there, neighbours, both of whom had a parrot; one of these was of a very discreet and sober conversation, as befitted the companion of a staid old lady, but the other had contracted a sad knack of swearing and talking coarsely from his former master, a rough sea-captain. In order to cure her bird of this terrible trick, his mistress begged her neighbour to lend her her well-behaved parrot, that he might teach her's better conduct; but alas! instead of the expected reform, at the end of the visit it was discovered that the wicked rogue of a travelled bird had corrupted his demure visitor, so that now they both screamed away together nothing but vulgar ribaldry from morning till night!" "One of the drollest parts of the story," said Mr. Warden, "is, that the despairing old lady, shortly after the return home of her degraded favourite, told us gravely that it had met with an awful retribution for its delinquency, as it had been seized with a fit and struck dead in the midst of one of its paroxysms of bad language-'quite a judgment!' as she declared." "Do you remember, mamma," said Lucy Warden, "one of the maids telling you of a parrot that had been given to her married sister, and when you asked if it was a good talker, she said: 'Oh no, ma'am, not yet, it's quite a young one, and can only say 'Mother, mother!' as if that was always the first thing that young parrots say!" "That's a most amusing cockatoo of our neighbour's Mr. Rivers," said Mr. Warden; "it makes a noise precisely like a cane switched smartly through the air, and roars Hooray!' with all the enthusiasm and vigour of a MANAGEMENT OF PARROTS. 75 Jack tar, jerking its head back, raising itself on one claw, and waving the other in a perfect delirium and wild transport of excitement. Mr. Rivers declares that the bird became master of this accomplishment by having been once accidentally placed at an open window during a hotly contested election." "Parrots are good pets to keep," said William; "they live so long; and they will eat almost any sort of food-hempseed, nuts, fruits of every kind, meat, pudding, rice boiled in water, bread and milk, and they are fond of a potatoe." "Yes, William," said Bessie Mountain, "but I don't think too much flesh meat or sweets good for them; it makes them gouty, and destroys their feathers. They are very fond of bathing too, but I am very careful after my Polly has had his bath to set his cage a little distance from the fire, that he may be sure not to take cold. A very great point also, is, that they should have their perch made sufficiently thick, so that their claws may not become cramped." 66 66 'They are sadly jealous creatures," said Lucy Warden; we are obliged to keep Master Poll here among the silkworms and gold fish, or he would be vexed to death with the birds; he don't much mind a dog or a cat, but we mustn't venture to caress either of those even before him, or he'd sulk for a whole day, and wouldn't eat a morsel." "Here's a complete contrast to the parrot!" said Mr. Singleton. "What can be more noiseless than these 76 GOLD AND SILVER FISH. gold and silver fish gliding round and round their crystalline palace? Wordsworth exclaims : : "How beautiful!-Yet none knows why And sometimes, not without your will, Are dwarfed or magnified ?" " "They are certainly the most unobtrusive of all pets," said Mr. Warden, "and do not require much trouble in their management, excepting in removing them from one globe to another to change the water, which should be done at least once a week (in summer oftener), and then they should be carefully lifted out with a small net, as the least handling destroys them. It is even a good way to empty the water by means of a syphon, as this leaves the fish GOLD AND SILVER FISH. 77 totally undisturbed; though as, of course, this does not effect a complete change of the water, it should be used only occasionally." "We feed them," said William, "with bread crumbs, vermicelli broken very small, hard yolks of eggs reduced to powder, and they are very fond of an occasional fly." "And of course they eat duckweed, which the learned lemna call,'" said Mr. Singleton. "Yes," answered William; "and they like to be put into a shady place in the summer; we sometimes hang a green bough over their globe in sunny weather, that they may fancy they've got into a cool nook under the bank of a river." "They are rather delicate," said Mr. Warden, "and are said to be violently affected, and even killed, by the firing of cannon, by thunder and lightning, or by any powerful and pervading smell." "We soon know when they are ill or dying," said little George, "by their wabbling backwards and forwards when they swim, as if they were tipsy and couldn't keep themselves steady; and when they die, they turn quite over on their backs, and float on the top of the water." with his bright beady eye and bushy tail; he ran straight towards Lucy Warden, and she, leaning forward so as to let the hem of her frock touch the floor, the little fellow ran nimbly up her dress, and crept snugly into the pocket of her black silk apron. "Ah Lucy!" said her mother, "you sadly spoil that little rogue. He is so tame, and so fond of Lucy,” added she, "that he will lie for hours rolled up in her apronpocket; and once he found his way into the library to look for her, where, discovering no one, he amused himself by playing up such pranks as made his visit there a memorable one." "Yes," said Mr. Warden. "Master Scuggy, willing to prove, I suppose, his appreciation of studious pursuits and literature, and his right of admission to a library by virtue of his aptitude at devouring books, set to and gnawed away at the morocco binding of my favourite 'Urn-burial,' made serious havoc with my 'Holy Living and Dying,' played up old gooseberry with my 'Memoirs of Curran,' and indeed I scarcely saved my 'Bacon's Remains' from the remorseless tooth of this little vagabond." "This is indeed worse than handling against his tooth his hasty nut,'" said Mr. Singleton; "but is it true that these little creatures are so subject to fits and sudden death ?” "Yes," said Mrs. Warden, "and it is on this plea of confinement being so fatal to them, that Lucy's squirrel is allowed so much liberty; but this liability to disease, joined to its mischievous habits, renders it a bad pet to keep, so Lucy has promised us she will never have another squirrel after this." As Mrs. Warden concluded, she led the way into the adjoining room, appropriated to the cages of all the children's favourite song-birds. "I perceive you give your birds famous large roomy cages, William," said Mr. Singleton. |