Parrot, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230
The medieval bestiary records that parrots have a large tongue broader than other birds which enable them to speak, and that if you could not see it you may think it is a man speaking. The parrot has a hard beak and a strong head and if you need to teach it with blows to speak you would need an iron rod. When the bird is young it learns quickly and remembers longer, but when it gets older it is forgetful and difficult to teach (Barber 2008).
Transcription
Translation
di. torque punicea. grandi lingua. et ceteris
avibus latiore. Unde et articulata verba exprimit.
ita ut(dots underneath) ut si eam non videris. hominem loqui putes.
Ex natura autem salutat dicens ave. vel kere. ce-
tera nomina institutione discit. Hinc est illud.
Psitacus avebis. aliorum nomina discam. Hoc didi-
ci per me dicere cesar ave. Cuius rostri tanta duri-
cia est; ut cum e sullimi precipitatur in saxum;
nisu oris se excipiat. Capud vero tantum valens ut
India alone sends a parrot bird, green in color, with a pink neck, a large tongue, and wider than other birds. Hence it expresses articulate words, so that if you did not see it, you would think that a man was speaking. But by nature he greets by saying bird, or kere, the other names he learns by training. Hence it is that you will take away the parrot, I will learn the names of others. I learned this by myself to say, Caesar, the bird. Whose face is so hard; as when he falls from a height upon a rock; let him receive himself with the effort of the mouth. The head, however, is so strong
sicut homines loquatur; ferrea sit ferula verberan-
dus. Nam cum pullis est et intra alterum etatis
sue annum; que monstrata sunt et citius discit;
et retinet tenatius. Paulo senior obliviosus est et
indocilis.