The Wasp — March 6, 1880 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Questions in Zoology Defined: Parrots" This page is primarily educational rather than satirical. The text discusses parrots' remarkable ability to mimic human speech and their intelligence, illustrated with three detailed engravings of parrots in various poses. The main satire appears in the anecdotes embedded within the text. One story mocks a drunk American in Buenos Aires whose parrot learned his slurred, profane speech—creating embarrassment when the bird repeated the man's vulgar language in public. Another anecdote ridicules a woman who tried using her parrot's "outsized vocabulary" as social camouflage, only to be humiliated when the bird exposed her pretense. These narratives satirize human vanity and the foolishness of owners who expect parrots to reflect their own refinement while failing to control what the birds actually learn. The humor lies in parrots' honest mimicry betraying human pretense.