Parroting
This bird-brain is pretty smart.
The bird, a captive African grey called N’kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour. […] He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive.
One N’kisi-ism was “flied” for “flew”, and another “pretty smell medicine” to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York.
When he first met Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N’kisi said: “Got a chimp?”
He appears to fancy himself as a humourist. When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: “You got to put this bird on the camera.”
My friend Ginger volunteers at an exotic bird rescue for pet exotic birds who have nowhere else to go. One bird, Sam, has particularly caught her attention on more than one occasion. She came in one day and asked, "How are you doing today, Sam?" He said, "Pretty." She said, "You *are* pretty! Anything else?" He thought about it for awhile. "Brave," he said finally. "Pretty brave bird Sam." This was not a formulation he had ever heard before.
On a different day, he was gnawing his food with particular energy, and Ginger teased him that he was turning into a dinosaur. "You'll confuse him!" said another volunteer. "He won't know what he is." Sam looked at the other volunteer with disgust. "Bird," he said carefully and contemptuously. "Sam *bird*."
Posted by Mris on May 11 2006 09:58
This line drew me up short, though: "N'kisi's remarkable abilities, which are said to include telepathy...."
Pardon my doubt.
Posted by Gary Farber![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mememachinego.com/nav-commenters.gif)
on
May 13 2006 12:03