Essay on instinct, and its physical and moral relations / By Thomas Hancock.
- Thomas Hancock
- Date:
- 1824
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essay on instinct, and its physical and moral relations / By Thomas Hancock. Source: Wellcome Collection.
110/574 (page 92)
![versatility of notes, or natural imitative powers, does not appear. (Goldsmith. ) Although the parrot is chiefly remarkable for his learning to speak by rote, yet the account which Locke has given from an author of great note, of a parrot in Brazil, would lead us to conclude that these birds are capable ofa considerable degree of reflexion. Indeed it would scarcely be credited, if it was not supported by such authority. <¢ |] had a mind (says he) to know from Prince Maurice’s own mouth, the account of a common, but much credited story, that I had heard so often from many others, of an old parrot he had in Brazil, dur- ing his government there, that spoke, and asked, and answered common questions like a reasonable crea- ture; so that those of his train there, generally con- cluded it to be witchery or possession; and one of his chaplains, who lived long afterwards in Holland, would never from that time endure a parrot, but said they all had a devil in them. [ had heard many par- ticulars of this story, and assevered by people hard to be discredited, which made me ask Prince Maurice what there was of it. He said, with his usual dry- ness and plainness in talk, that there was something true but a great deal false of what had been reported. I desired to know of him, what there was of the first? He told me short and coldly, that he had heard of such an old parrot when he came to Brazil, and though he believed nothing of it, and it was a good way off, yet he had so much curiosity as to send for it; that it was a very great and a very old one, and when](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3309200x_0110.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
