PARROTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1749, 25 January 1888, Page 3

PARROTS.

An exhibition of educated parrots re* 1 cently held m Paris showed very clearly to what a state of perfection these birds are capable of being trained. "La Natnre " gives an account of their most remarkable accomplishments. Their stage was a long table, at one end of which were parched, on which were grouped half-a-dozen parrots. Four of these were cockatoos — whit*, with yellow crests ; the other two wire grey parrotg, with the neck and under-parts ros<) color. Among the tricks which they perform at the bidding of their ownar, M. Andy, are the following : — Two fixed burs on upright supports are placed on the table ; a parrot oiimbs up one of them, turns a somers iult, keeps his head downwards, and passing on to the second bar goes through the came exercise Their owner then calls Tom, *a small white parrot, who comes towards him as if about to climb on one of the bars, but runs baok again, holding down his head, and shaking his wings m a grotesque way Tom is evidently the buffoon of the tnnpe. A bell is then brought, with a handle which forma a lever ; a parrot advances, and, putting on« foot on the lever, rings the bell. The trainer asks the audience what number of rings th^y wish for ; someone exclaims " seven," and the parrot rings the bell ■even times. The bird is then asked how much does three timea three muke, and it replies by ringing the bell cine timea, A perch is then placed on the table m the form of a see-saw, at each end of which a grey parrot perches, and m the centre, jußt above tbe pivot, jumps a magnificent white parrot, named Charley, the principal one m the troupe. This parrot throwing the weight of his body successively to right or left of the pivot, rocks the see-siw rapidly. To see the an rnation of this bird during the performance, one would suppose that he took a real pleasure m rocking his companions. The same bird then goes through another exercise. Four flagstaffs are set up on the table, and at the fooi of each is a flag attached to a coid, which passes over a pulley at the top. The flags are English, French, Belgian and American. One of the audience asks for the Fiench flag. Charley aivanoes, draws himself up, erecting bis bright ye low crest, and spreading his wings, suddtnly Feizes tbe Ino with his beak, and then alternately with his beak and foot, hauls up the flag as a sailor would, band over hand, until it ia fast at the top. He then goes through the Fame performance with the other flags m succession. Another remarkable performance was the fol lowing :— Several letters of the alphabet are placed upright on the table, and Char.'ey is again brought forward, p'umiug himself as before A spectator calls for a letter. Ch >rjey hesitates, inclines his head on one side, appears to reflect, then suddenly advances and picks up the letter named ; repeating the performance with o'her letters wfaeo called for. Suddenly little Tom jutnpa off his perch, runs up, seizes the remaining letters one after another, aod pitches them away on the floor. Another parrot then appears, ana at word of command throws reverat somersaults on the table. Two others follows, and waltz slowly round while the music plays. ( f all parrots M Abdy considers the white cockatoos the most giftid m regard to agility and capability for learning tricks — being, m fact, acrobats by nature. It is true they are very slow m learning to talk, but they nre easily tamed, and understand and do what they are told.