. Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds . s by means of their power-ful claws, which, it will benoticed, are arranged in pairs,two in front and two have powerful beaks, likethe hawks, but with one excep-tion are not flesh-eaters, livingupon seeds and fruit. Theyhave peculiar fleshy tongueswhich can be moved in almostany direction, and many parrotscan be taught to utter wordsand sentences. They have nointelligent understanding ofsuch words, merely imitatingwhat they hear and have beentaught. But so well do many oftheir phrases fit to time and occasion, that it is almost im-pos
. Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds . s by means of their power-ful claws, which, it will benoticed, are arranged in pairs,two in front and two have powerful beaks, likethe hawks, but with one excep-tion are not flesh-eaters, livingupon seeds and fruit. Theyhave peculiar fleshy tongueswhich can be moved in almostany direction, and many parrotscan be taught to utter wordsand sentences. They have nointelligent understanding ofsuch words, merely imitatingwhat they hear and have beentaught. But so well do many oftheir phrases fit to time and occasion, that it is almost im-possible to believe they are not using language after thefashion of man. One which was kept in a house adjoiningmy own learned to imitate the mocking birds so perfectlythat it was difficult to distinguish between them. It alsoimitated the grewsome bellow of the burro, or donkey. Itcaught the cries of the itinerant street dealers, and spentmuch time crying at the top of its voice, Old rags, oldrags, bottles, old rags. HOLDER, F. R. & B. — 14. Fig. 185. — Snowy Owl. 210 THE OWLS AND PARROTS In North Americawe have but a singlenative parrot (), the Caro-lina parrot,and this isvery rare.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1906
