Posted by Peter H on April 03, 2006 at 21:33:33 from 86.130.125.216 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Parakeets - Re: Gibber and Polly posted by Adam Quinan on April 03, 2006 at 19:49:50:
the parrot's one essential purpose which is to find the message in the arrow fired by Nancy at John
'Instantly the parrot screamed aloud and seized the arrow with its beak and one of its claws . . . . . in a moment the ship's parrot had not only torn his own old feathers out of the arrow but had broken the arrow itself . . . ."Pretty Polly, Pretty Polly", it said contentedly . . .'
This is indeed a dramatic and typically fascinating bit of Ransomeiana. Why is the bird behaving in this way? I would say that the parrot is not recognising its own feathers so much as thinking that another parrot is near - possibly a rival. Or possibly a mate? Parrots in the wild fly in family groupings, so Polly had been long starved of company and might react unpredictably in the suspected presence of another parrot at last.
Incidentally, in the narrative Polly is referred to as 'it', but in the Swallows' conversation as 'he'.