Parrot History
Jungle Tails
By
Max E. Harris
Copyright 2013 Max E. Harris
rev. 1.01
This edition of Parrot History has been updated and revised.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
The characters and events in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Table of Contents
Palomar's Tale
Alonzo's Tale
Juanito's Tale
But They Don't Listen to Me
About the Author
Palomar's Tale
From high in the equatorial sky a bird looks down upon the forest canopy below. It is late morning and the jungle below has become quiet again after the early morning clamber for food and water. Some of the jungle residents have become the food of others. Some take their water from the drops on the leaves while others make the treacherous trip to the ground. The lucky ones obtain their liquids from the foods they consume.
Perched on a branch in the middle of a tree in this jungle are five members of a parrot family. On the left are two young gray female parrots. They are small and peck at each other in play. Next to them is their larger gray mother. She is about twenty years old and has raised many generations of parrots already. She looks over happily at the two young females then turns to the large colorful male next to her and nuzzles her beak into the feathers next to his beak to scratch his face. He turns his head slightly to the side to accept her nibble. Next to him sits a small colorful young male. He is still resting from his large meal of fresh fruit but is constantly looking around for something better to do than sit with his family.
The young female sitting next to her larger mother turns to her and asks, “Mother, why do you say we have to leave this tree and go to another tree?”
Her mother sighs and replies, “It is to survive. We must move to survive. If we stay here too long we will die.”
“You always say things like that. What makes you think we will die if we stay here?”
“It is one of the facts of life that you learn if you live long enough. Just like I taught you not to eat the fruit that is too low on the trees because it can make you sick or make it easy for something to catch you. We move for other reasons.”
“What are those reasons?”
“I do not want to explain to you over and over again. There is a very old parrot living higher in the tree over there who can tell you many stories about why we live like we do. Her name is Palomar. She likes to tell stories to young parrots so you take your sister and go talk to her. If you take her a piece of fruit or a soft nut she will be pleased to talk to you. Just remember to come back before it becomes dark or you will be food for a serpent.”
“Good. We will find her a piece of fruit and come back later.”
The two young females fly into the air and go to where they can take a ripe small fruit from a low branch. Then they fly to the nearby tree and circle around higher and higher until they see the old gray female parrot sitting out on a branch. They fly down next to her and put the piece of fruit next to her.
“Are you Miss Palomar?”
The old female turns her gray head and looks at the two young females who have landed next to her. She reaches down and bites the piece of fruit they have brought her.
“Yes, I am Palomar. Thank you for this fruit. It is very good but it grows very low so it is too dangerous for me to go down and get it.”
“Miss Palomar, our mother told us you could tell us why we have to move to another tree so often.”
“Yes, I can tell you that and a lot of other things that will help you to stay alive. You do want to stay alive, don't you?”
“Oh, yes, Miss Palomar. We want to stay alive because we have such a good time flying around and playing with the other birds like us.”
“Well, then, let me begin by telling you some stories about things that happened long before you or even your mother or her mother were hatched. But I can not tell it to you all today. You will have to come every day for a while, and you must bring me a good piece of fruit each time. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Miss Palomar, we will be glad to bring you good fruit each day.”
“Very well, then, let me begin my story.”
# # #
When I was a young girl there was more of almost everything. There were more trees, more birds, more animals, more fruits, more serpents. When you found a place to sleep at night you had to make sure it was not too low or near a place where you had seen many serpents. The parrots who did not look where they were to sleep were not there the next morning. From this I learned it is better to sleep higher in a tree. But you did not want to be so high that the branch was small and might break off in a storm in the night, or where a hawk might see you and take you.
There were fewer men, both light men and dark men. I think this was better for us because it was the men that were one of our bigger problems. The dark men would set traps to catch us. When they caught a bright male they would kill him and take his beautiful feathers, then eat him. When they caught a female, they would just kill her and eat her. But sometimes they would put the males into boxes and give them to the light men who would give the dark men something small and shiny. When the light men left, the parrots never came back. The men started to take many of all the living things. Sometimes the light men would come in groups. At first they were on the backs of animals but later the animals were different and made different sounds and the men sat in the insides of the animals. When these animals stopped, they did not make any sounds and they did not eat anything. Now you see many of these shiny animals of all sizes but when I was young there were just a few of them. We learned that when the men came in the shiny animals we had to find a new place to live because the light men wanted to take away everything that they could take, whether it was dead or alive. It seemed like many times they killed the birds and the animals because they just wanted to kill them. They did not eat them like the dark men did. The dark men first used sticks to kill animals, and each other, but the light men used special sticks that made lightning and thunder. When you saw the lightning and heard the thunder of these sticks, you knew something was going to die. We learned that when you saw any men with these sticks, it was time to look for a new home. At first it was only the light men who had these thunder sticks, but later the dark men had them, too.
Then the dark men began to cut down all the trees and take them away. When I was young they would just cut down a few trees to make boxes to live in or to make a fire. But later they cut all the trees in an area. When they started to cut many of the trees, we knew it was time to find a new home. This was bad for all the animals in the areas. Sometimes it was good for us because the cats and the serpents disappeared so we did not have to worry so much about them. This continued to happen for a very long time. It is still happening now.
There used to be many large animals that lived in the jungle with us. We saw them on the ground but they did not come in the trees so we were not afraid of them. Before the light men came, most of the large animals were safe. The large animals could attack the dark men and kill them. But even the largest animals could not stop the men with the thunder sticks. The thunder sticks killed everything.
Then the men both light and dark started to blow white dust everywhere. We stayed away from the white powder but after a while we saw that our eggs were no longer strong and they would break and the baby birds would die. Also, if we were n
ear the white dust or if it was on our food, we would become sick. Some of us would die. We learned to stay away from anything that the men put in the air or on the ground.
As I became older I decided that whenever there were men nearby something bad was likely to happen. So whenever men came into the area, I would fly away until I could not see or hear them. Then I felt better and safer.
That is my story for today. If you return tomorrow with some good fruit, I will tell you about the good fruits we used to have but that I do not see anymore.”
# # #
"It's a lovely day, isn't it, girls. Thank you so much for this papaya you brought me.
Do you hear that noise in the sky? The sky is clear. There is no storm about but still there is a noise high in the sky. These noises come all day and all night but they do not seem to have any effect. I don't know what makes such a sound. When I was young there were no noises like this. Then all the things that flew in the air above the trees had wings that went up and down. Then one day one of my friends came and told me he had seen the strangest thing flying. It was a large bird that had straight wings that never moved. I realize that when the air rises it is possible to ride the air and climb high into the sky. Of course, a smart parrot would never do such a foolish thing. We parrots know that we are meant to stay under the protection of the tall trees. Above these trees there are hunter birds which kill other birds and they especially like colorful male parrots. A parrot who flies too high will be the meal of a hunter bird. A parrot who flies too low will be taken by a man or one of the cats who wait on the lower branches of the trees. It is the prudent parrot who survives by staying in her safe area of the tree.
When I was young there were no large birds that make so much noise. One day a bird told me he had seen a large bird flying above the trees. The large bird had a live man inside of it. It must have been a hunter bird who had captured a man and was taking the man back to the nest to feed the young birds. The large bird did not move its wings but it did have long feathers on its nose which moved. I did not understand except maybe these feathers moved to swat the insects away from the bird's face. I don't think such a large bird could easily fly down into the forest. After much time there came to be even more large strange birds flying above the forest. These birds shined like they were wet. They flew very fast and made a great noise.
After much time many men came through the jungle with the sticks that made fire. My family knew we had to leave or the men would kill us. As we were flying far away we saw a family of the large birds fly over the men with the sticks. Some of the large birds flew down towards the men and made noise like that from the men's sticks but much faster. Then they would turn and quickly fly into the sky. Another family of a different type of large bird came a little later. They dropped many large eggs as they flew over. But when these eggs struck the ground, they did not break open like a normal egg does. No, they made a great noise and fire that destroyed everything near them. The men on the ground ran from these eggs but many of them were killed and became food for the vultures. Better them than us, I say.”
The young birds sitting nearby looked at each other and trembled a little. After the first day with Miss Palomar the audience had grown so that now all the branches around were heavy with young birds who had come to learn parrot history.
# # #
A young parrot in the back said, “Miss Palomar, a friend flew down near the village. She said she saw a man who had an extra white skin on him. On this skin was the image of a beautiful blue parrot. Is this the image of the famous Alonzo?”
Palomar turned her head from eating a berry on the branch the young parrots had given her. “Yes, I am sure that is the famous Alonzo. I, too, have seen his image on the skin of the men. He really was much more handsome than these images.”
“Did you know Alonzo, Miss Palomar?”
“Yes, Alonzo and I were very good friends for a long time. We stayed with each other and raised many young parrots, some who looked a lot like Alonzo and others who looked like me.”
“Can you tell us the story of Alonzo?”
Palomar ate a few more berries. She moved her head. At first she looked unhappy but then her face changed and she sat up very straight on the branch.
“Yes, I will tell you of Alonzo.”
# # #
“Alonzo was born in the deep jungle, far from the men. He grew to be a large, beautiful blue male with a splendid blue head. He flew around the jungle with his young friends. One day they came to a village of men and Alonzo saw many things he had never seen before. He was very curious so he did not listen to the warnings of his friends and flew down close to the village. He saw so much good fruit in one place that he went to take some of it. What he did not see was the large net like the web of a spider that was above the fruit. When he landed and took a piece of the fruit, the net fell down on him. However much he struggled he could not escape from the web. A man came and picked him up in the net. He took the net to a strange nest that was surrounded on all sides by bamboo branches. He put the net with Alonzo into the nest and released Alonzo from the net. Alonzo spent many days trying to find a way out of the nest but there did not seem to be any way out. The man brought Alonzo food and water so he was healthy. But he was very unhappy because he could just jump between a few branches in this large nest. It was difficult for him even to open his wings completely. Alonzo lived like this for a while and became adapted to the nest. As he was very handsome even to the men, many visitors came to see him and admire him. After a while the men put a female parrot in the nest with Alonzo to keep him company. This made Alonzo very happy. In time they had young parrots which the man removed from the nest when they could fly a little. Alonzo was not only handsome, he was also very intelligent and could imitate sounds made by the men. The more he made sounds like the men, the more men came to see him and listen to him. When he made sounds like the men, the men gave him and his friend wonderful treats. Alonzo was somewhat content but he wanted to be able to fly again.
One night there was a great storm. The wind was so strong that many trees broke. A large tree broke and fell on the nest of Alonzo. He and his friend were knocked to the bottom of the nest but they were not hurt. When it became light, they saw that there was now an opening in side of the nest that was wide enough for them to pass through. They both escaped. They could not fly very well so they hopped towards the jungle. Then they hopped and flew in short bursts up into a tree. They flapped their wings until they remembered how to fly. They hopped and flew through the trees as fast as they could go until there was no longer any sight of the village.
It took many days but Alonzo learned again how to live in the jungle. He learned again how to fly far. Most importantly he learned not to go close to the villages. When I met Alonzo, I was immediately in love with him. As I was young and beautiful myself, Alonzo wanted to stay with me. We were together for a long time and had many small parrots together. Then one day when Alonzo returned from a long flight with his friends he told me a strange story.
He and his friends had gone to a large river where the men rode on large nests that floated on the water like great hippopotami. On the shoulder of one of the men Alonzo saw a large male parrot sitting. The man reached up and scratched the parrot's head and the parrot put his beak next to the man like it was another parrot. The parrot jumped into the air, flew around a bit, then returned to the man and landed on his arm. It seemed that the man and the parrot were friends. Alonzo told me he did not understand this but wanted to learn more about the strange life of this other parrot. I warned him that he must be careful or he would end up in a closed nest like he had been in for many seasons. He said he would be careful. Each morning he flew to the river and watched the floating nest. The parrot on the floating nest slept on a stick on a branch on the top of the nest. Alonzo flew over him to make sure there were no men around then he landed beside him.
“Hi, I'm Alonzo. What is your name?”
“My name is Juanito. Do you live here?”
“Yes, near here. Another parrot told me he had seen you riding on the shoulder of a man. Is that true?”
“Yes, the man is my friend. He scratches me and gives me food and liquids to drink. I have learned to repeat what the men say and they are very happy when I make these sounds. When we go to new places where the sounds are different, I listen to the men and learn to make the new sounds. Everyone likes it and gives me treats.”
“Juanito, I, too, have learned to make the sounds of the men and they treated me well for this. You like living with these men?”
“Yes, it is a very good life. They protect me from the rats that come on the ship – they call it a ship – and the cats that live here have much respect for me because they know that all the men think that Juanito is much better than the cats. The men do not put me in a box except when I need to be protected. I am free to fly when and where I want. When we are near the land I go and visit the female parrots and tell them stories of my travels. They all think Juanito is a great parrot.”
“Juanito, do you think they would let me come with you for a while?”
“Ah, yes, Alonzo. I can see you are a very handsome parrot and the men will treat you well if you make sounds like they do.”
“Good. I go to my friends now and tell them I am going to go with you for a while and not to worry about me.”
Alonzo flew home and told everyone about the story Juanito had told him. Alonzo wanted to have new experiences, to see new places. He was very excited about his future. I said goodbye to him and said I would wait for him to return. We scratched each other's faces, then he flew away.
It was many seasons before we saw Alonzo again. When he returned he looked very healthy and was very happy. He told us many stories about his travels and the places and things he had seen. He stayed for a few days but said that he had to leave with Juanito on the ship again. He was going to have more experiences and learn to make more of the sounds of different men. He said he saw images of himself in many places he went to . That is why you saw his image on the man's extra skin.
Parrot History Page 1