Posted by Owen Roberts on May 29, 2007 at 08:52:40 from 80.189.142.245 user OwenRoberts.
Most of us believe that, at least initially, AR based his characters on real people.
With the effluction of time, all of those we imagine to have been the originals have now died - except perhaps Polly.
Presumably Polly being green was an Amazonian parrot, they can live for 100+ years. We know from SA that Polly was a young parrot.
So perhaps somewhere there is an aged green parrot still muttering "Pretty Polly" and perhaps "Pieces of Eight".