Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

Not long since, a lady in London owned a remarkable parrot. Any one hearing the bird laugh could not help laughing too, especially when in the midst of it she would cry out: “Don’t make me laugh so, I shall die, I shall!” and would then continue laughing more violently than before.
Her crying and sobbing were very curious, and if her owner said: “Poor Polly, what is the matter? she replied: “So bad, so bad; got such a cold!” and after crying for some time, she would gradually cease, and, making a noise like drawing a long breath, say: “Better now,” and begin to laugh. If anyone happened to cough or sneeze, she would say: “What a cold!”
One day, when the children were playing with her, the maid came into the room, and on their repeating to her several things which the parrot had said, Polly looked up, and said quite plainly: “No, I did not!”
She could call the cat very plainly, saying: “Puss!” and then answer, “Mew;” but the most amusing part was that whenever we wanted to make her call it, and to that purpose said: “Pus!” she always answered: “Mew,” till the person began mewing, then she would begin calling puss as quickly as possible.
She imitated every kind of noise, and barked so naturally that she often set all the dogs on the parade near by barking; and the consternation caused in a party of cocks and hens by her crowing and clucking was the most ludicrous thing possible.
She could sing quite like a child, and people more than once thought it was a human being. And it was most ludicrous to hear her make what we should call a false note, and then say: “Oh, la!” and burst out laughing at herself, beginning again in quite another key.
She often performed a kind of exercise which her owner described as the lance exhibition. She would put one claw behind her, first on one side, and then the other, then in front, and round over her head, and while doing so, kept saying: “Come on! come on! and when finished, said: “Bravo! beautiful!” and then drew herself up.
Once when asked where the servants had gone, to the astonishment and almost dismay of her owner, she replied: “Down-stairs.”-Youths’ Companion.