I have always watched animals with a great deal of interest, from the
bulky but docile elephant to the smallest bird that flies; indeed, I
believe my love for animals, especially the horse, was the incentive
that led me to continue so many years in the circus business. Although
I never had a natural taste for the circus, and for the details
connected therewith, still I always enjoyed organizing and putting
together different drawing attractions. All my other work was given to
the care of assistants.
During our exhibitions in Fourteenth Street, New York, I became very
much attached to many of the birds and animals, and would spend my
leisure time in playing with and feeding them, besides studying their
characters and dispositions, for even among the lower animals there is
character just as there is in mortals.
Among my collection of parrots, there was a white cockatoo. When I
entered the building in the morning he would set up such a noise and
racket, unless I came immediately to speak to him for a few minutes,
that he would soon have the entire menagerie in an uproar--the monkeys
chattering, the lions roaring, and, in fact, a regular pandemonium. But
as soon as I had complied with the wishes of the cockatoo, quiet would
be restored. Some time later when I was in New Orleans, I received a
telegram announcing the Fourteenth Street fire and the complete
destruction of the menagerie.
These beautiful birds are very easily taught. I once knew a man named
Prescott who had trained one of these white beauties to sing the Star
Spangled Banner, to crow like a rooster, bark like a dog, cry like a
child, and so on; and in this way he could entertain a crowd of people
for hours together. Unlike most of its feathered brothers, this bird
enjoyed pleasing its master, and would repeat his performance whenever
called upon to do so, and he seemed to take a pride in his wonderful
acts.