0n (05 Sep 07) Bob Ackley wrote to Cindy Haglund...

 BA> Replying to a message of Cindy Haglund to Bob Ackley:

 CH> Parrots are uncanny how they mimic the human voice and what we say.
 CH> But they're just reacting ... they don't understand what they're
 CH> saying. This is easy to demonstrate.

 BA> Years ago a friend of mine had a pet grackle.  The thing just moved in
 BA> with them when it was very young.  They could let it out of the house
 BA> in warm weather and it'd stay in the yard, and come back in at night. 
 BA> That thing could mimic a ringing
 BA> telephone perfectly.  It finally died of apparently natural causes at
 BA> the age of about
 BA> five, which, I'm told, is about three years longer than they live in
 BA> the wild.


 Aww.. That is a sweet story. Thanks for sharing. I bet being able to
be outside had a lot to do with the bird's longevity. I feel sorry for
birds kept in cages for the mere purpose of entertaining humans. :(

It's almost as bad as working couples keepinga large breed dog holed
up indoors all day...

cindy

... A bird in hand is safer than one overhead.

--- PPoint 3.01