“It does so,” said Uncle Thomas; “and can only be accounted for by supposing it to be one of those curious coincidences which sometimes surprise us. I can, however, tell you a story in which, though the Parrots could only utter a couple of phrases each, they used them as naturally as if they had a whole vocabulary at command:— “A tradesman who had a shop in the Old Bailey, opposite the prison, kept two Parrots, the one green, and the other grey. The green Parrot was taught to speak when there was a knock at the street door; the grey put in his word whenever the bell was rung; but they only knew two short phrases of English a-piece, though they pronounced these very distinctly. The house in which their owner lived had a projecting old-fashioned front, so that the first floor could not be seen from the pavement on the same side of the way; and one day when they were left at home by themselves, hanging out of a window, some one knocked at the street door. “Who’s there?” said the green Parrot, in the exercise of his office. “The man with the leather!” was the reply; to which the bird answered with his farther store of language, “Oh, ho!” The door not being opened immediately as he expected, the stranger knocked a second time. “Who’s there?” said the green Parrot again.—“Who’s there!” said the man with the leather, flying into a passion, ‘Why don’t you come down?’ to which the Parrot again made answer, ‘Oh, ho!’ This response so enraged the visitor that he dropped the knocker and rang furiously at the house bell; but this proceeding brought the grey Parrot, who called out in a new voice, ‘Go to the gate.’—‘To the gate?’ muttered the appellant, who saw no such convenience, and imagined that the servants were bantering him. ‘What gate?’ cried he, getting out into the kennel, that he might have the advantage of seeing who it was that spoke to him. ‘Newgate,’ responded the grey Parrot, just at the moment when his species was discovered. “Capital!” said Frank, laughing. “So you see, Frank,” said Uncle Thomas, “that the appropriate answers given by Parrots are not always the result of intelligence.