The Grey Parrot

by Wolfgang de Grahl

This is an extensive manual of sorts on keeping grey parrots as pets. The book has details about this particular species' dietary and husbandry needs, how to tame a new parrot and methods on training them to speak, behavioral issues, recognition and treatment of disease, and breeding attempts. Most interesting I found was reading the many personal accounts submitted by parrot fanciers to the publication. The individual descriptions make it clear that each parrot has a unique personality and their own likes and dislikes, especially when it comes to people they will trust. It was intriguing and amusing to read about their antics and speech patterns. Curiously, most birds appeared to learn phrases or song by repeating one or two words and gradually adding a new word until they could say the whole sentence. There was one parrot in particular who would repeat the entire sentence at first with just general intonations and rhythm, then gradually clarifying the phrasing and syllables until the words became distinct with practice. I also noted that some songs and phrases seemed really common to the time and culture: lots of parrots in this book would repeat "one, two three, hurrah!" and quite a few would say "now I'm coming with the stick!" or "I'm going to get the stick!" making you realize- sadly- that corporal punishment was part of the household. It was an interesting contrast, this older book, in comparison to newer publications I recently read about parrots in captivity. I don't keep birds myself so I am ignorant about what type of care parrots really need, but several other readers' reviews point out that the dietary and husbandry practices in here are bad advice, and should not be followed. So it stays on the shelf as a historic curiosity more than anything else.

Rating: 3/5             256 pages, 1987