A rather improbable story next from 1897 which appeared in the Blantyre papers of the era. Please consider this next anecdote as tongue in cheek.
The manager of a local theatre had a parrot, which he kept in a cage at the front of the theatre door. Often when people entered the narrow doorway, the theatre manager was obliged to control the queues by calling out “One at a time please, one at a time!” Of course, over the years, the parrot soon learned this repetitive phrase, much to the amusement of customers entering the building.
One day as the cage was being cleaned out, the bird escaped and for a couple of days was not heard of or seen. Later in the week, a nearby farmer was attracted to a commotion in his field and soon saw that it was a flock of angry large crows, intent on attacking the red, exotic bird intruding on their territory. The farmer got closer and horrified to see the crows trying to set about the parrot, swooping in to try to pluck its red shiny bright feathers. However, as the attack commenced, the farmer was suddenly stopped in his tracks, scratching his head in disbelief when he overhead the bird clearly call out in the most humanlike voice……, “One at a time please, one at a time”.
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Elizabeth Grieve Bird in the picture is a red cardinal