cut the herbage, others collect it into heaps; a third set serve as
wagons to carry it to their holes; while still others perform all the
work of draught horses. The manner of the latter part of the curious
process is this. The animal that is to be the wagon, lies down on its
back, and stretching out its four legs as wide as it can, allows itself
to be loaded with hay; and those that are to be the horses, drag it,
thus loaded, by the tail, taking care not to upset the creature. The
task of thus serving as a wagon being, evidently, the least desirable
part of the business, is taken by every one of the party in turn.

[Illustration]

LXXIV

A TALKING PARROT

During the time that Prince Maurice was ruling in Brazil, he heard of an
old parrot that was much celebrated for answering like a human being,
many of the common questions put to it. It was at a great distance; but
so much had been said about it that the prince's curiosity was roused,
and he directed it to be sent for.

When the parrot was brought into the room where the prince was sitting,
in company with several Dutchmen, it at once cried out in the Brazilian
language, "What a company of white men are here!" They asked it, "Who is
that man?" (pointing to the prince). The parrot answered, "Some general
or other." When the attendants carried it up to him, he asked it,
through the aid of an interpreter (for he did not understand its
language), "Whence do you come?" The parrot answered, "From Marignan."

The prince asked, "To whom do you belong?" It answered, "To a
Portuguese." He asked again, "What do you there?" The parrot answered,
"I look after chickens." The prince laughing, exclaimed, "You look after
chickens!" The parrot in reply said, "Yes, I do; and I know well how to
do it;" clucking at the same time in imitation of the noise made by the
hen to call her little chicks together.

[Illustration]

The prince afterward said that although the parrot spoke in a language
he did not understand, yet he could not be deceived, for he had in the
room at the time both a Dutchman who spoke Brazilian, and a Brazilian
who spoke Dutch; that he asked them separately and privately, and both
agreed exactly in their account of the parrot's conversation.

LXXV

A CHARITABLE CANARY

A pair of goldfinches who had had the misfortune to be captured with
their nest and six young ones, were placed in a double cage, with a pair
of canaries, which had a brood o