_HOW PARROTS LOOK AND TALK._
[Illustration]
1. Next to the canary, the parrot is the pet bird of the house-hold.
It is kept for its bright colors, its curious ways, and its power to
talk.
2. The parrot is about the size of the dove. In color, those that we
see most often are green or gray. Some parrots are of a bright red,
and others are gay with bright green, red, and yellow.
3. The parrot has a thick, strong, and hooked bill. It is so strong
that it can take hold of the branch of a tree and hold itself up, and
with it it can crack the hardest nuts.
[Illustration]
4. It came from a warm region, and must have a warm room in winter, or
it will die. It lives on nuts and seeds, but when kept in the house it
will sometimes eat meat.
5. The parrot learns to love its master and those that take care of
it; but it is often cross to strangers, and will give them a terrible
bite with its hooked bill if they come too near.
[Illustration]
6. Like other birds, the parrot has four toes on each foot; but two of
these are in front and two behind. The toes are very strong, and with
them it can grasp things as we do with our hands.
7. With these toes it climbs easily, reaching up first one foot and
then the other, and sometimes taking hold with its bill. When eating,
it holds its food in its claw, biting off pieces to suit it.
8. When wild, the voice of the parrot is a loud, unpleasant scream,
and it does not forget this scream in its new home. But it also learns
to talk, and it may be taught to say many words as plainly as boys or
girls speak.
9. Parrots can whistle, and some have been taught to sing. They need
good care, which they repay by their pleasant ways and curious tricks.
Some of the parrot kind are called paroquets, and some are called
cockatoos.
10. This curious story is told of a parrot: One day, Sarah, a little
girl of eight years, had been reading about secret writing with
lemon-juice.
11. Not having any lemon, she thought she would try vinegar. So, after
dinner, she took a cruet, and was just pouring the vinegar into a
spoon, when her parrot sang out, "I'll tell mother! Turn it out! Turn
it out!"
12. The child, thinking the parrot would really tell her mother, threw
down the cruet and the spoon, and ran away to the nursery as fast as
her legs could carry her.