Bird Tales

Some time ago, an ornithologist on NPR's "The Diane Rehm Show" related a couple of true tales.

The first concerned crows in Japan (those very clever birds) who loved walnuts but couldn't break their shells so dropped them in front of cars waiting at red lights, then fed on them after the cars had run over them.

The ornithologist also spoke of mockingbirds in South Carolina who could still sing the song of a now-extinct bird, exciting bird-lovers who, on hearing it, thought the bird was not extinct after all.

And then there were parrots in some far-off country who were still speaking a few words of now-extinct languages which, of course, was an aid to various linguists.

One of my favorite bird/animal tales found in my reading concerns the Canadian painter, Emily Carr, a friend of the Group of Seven and a great animal lover, who'd once tamed a wild vulture to walk to heel and who gathered various pets about her including a rat (Susie), a monkey (Woo), and a parrot.  As the story goes, once when she was out and the phone rang, Woo opened the parrot's cage, then picked up the phone and handed it to him.

"Hello," the parrot said into the mouthpiece.

"Is Miss Carr there?" the caller asked.

"And who else?" said the parrot.  "Speak up, speak up."

The caller spoke louder and the parrot persisted.  "Speak up, speak up."

I don't know how long this carried on but Woo, the monkey, soon hung up the phone.  It's such a tidy tale, you have to laugh!

This is just one of her books

As an aside, I'd like to recommend Emily Carr's writings in the form of journals, stories, essays, memories--a collection of four books that I found splendid.  She's such a unique and honest individual, it's a pleasure to read her.  Considered Canada's most famous woman painter, she lived from 1871 to 1945, mostly in British Columbia with study in England and France.  She particularly loved painting mystery trees deep in forests.  And subjects related to the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest, especially Vancouver Island since she spent most of her life in the city of Victoria.

These four books are:

The House of All Sorts
Growing Pains:  An Autobiography
The Heart of a Peacock
Hundreds and Thousands:  The Journals of an Artist.