PARROT 116 YEARS OLD

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 7 June 1935, Page 9

PARROT 116 YEARS OLD

POPSEY REACHES LONDON BIRD OF DOUBTFUL LANGUAGE MISLED IN HER YOUTH. (Our Own Correspondent —By Air Mail) LONDON. May IS. Popsey, the most precious parrot in the world, has arrived in London. She tame on the Golden Arrow train from Paris, nestling happily on the shoulder of her master, the Maharajah Jam Sahib of Nawangar, and went to sleep at the house he has taken near Sunningdale, just outside London. Popsey is no ordinary parrot. She Inis lived lit! years and lias learned wisdom. In her youth she was misled. A sailor and a public house proprietor owned her and she picked up their language. Then the former Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, “Jltmji” of cricket fame, bought her and she moved in. Court circles. Her manners remained deplorable, her language nautical. “Ranji” had to apologise to many duchesses for her. But Ids son, the present Jam Sahib, has converted Popsey. She has become a courtier, her manners are impeccable. “I will tell you how I made her good,” the maharajah said. ‘‘Whenever she used a bad word I repeated it to her and smacked her beak with a pencil. Now she speaks only to me, and calls me “Bapu” which is ‘father.’ “She comes to bed witty me and sleeps on my shoulder. Once I say ‘good-night’ she slops talking, tucks, her head under her wing, and goes to sleep.”