the very very very old parrot

many years ago, as i dimly recall, i saw a photograph of a PARROT (or similar) that CAPTAIN COOK (or similar) had brought back from a voyage to TAHITI (or similar).

Cook died in 1779, of course. Tremendously venerable, the bird was still living: but was something like 210 years old (i forget when the photo was dated, though i'm pretty sure it was black and white). The bird's feathers had lost all their featheriness, and were just spiny and skeletal.

i: did i just imagine or dream this?
ii: was it a fake?
iii: does anyone reading recognise this description?
iv: is it on the internet?

-Andrew Jackson owned a Parrot.
-Ulysses S. Grant owned a Parrot.
-Calvin Coolidge owned a Parrot.
-George Washington owned a Parrot.
-Theodore Roosevelt owned a Macaw.

http://www.buffaloparrot.com/parrotfacts.htm

Is this what you're thinking of?

According to the Guinness Book Of World Records, a Madagascar radiated tortoise called Tui Malila presented to the Tongan royal family by Captain James Cook in the late 1700s, was either 188 or 192 when it died in 1965.

Aren't there Galapagos tortoises still alive from when Darwin visited those islands?

my belief in the involvement of capt cook may well stem from confusion with this story -- but it was a photo, and even a tremendously old featherless bird is not really mistakeable for a giant tortoise

i think i may have actually seen the picture in an old guinness book of records

http://www.siamreptile.com/webboard/post_webboard_03/1263574083_57624.jpg

'Funny sort of parrot this, eh what?'

Then there's Churchill's parrot. Disraeli's parrot would have been more impressive tho.

I suppose Charlie is dead now?

Not Winston Churchill's parrot? No picture like you describe, though. (xpost, bah)

Also reminds me of the parrots who spoke a dead language and taught it to Western explorers, but again, can't find pictures.

the internet teaches me that churchill's parrot is a hoax, sadly

"taught it to Western explorers" <-- this seems implausible

"He's either saying WHO'S A PRETTY BOY THEN or FUCK WHITEY"

It was a tortoise.

It tortoise how to speak Mayan

http://www3.upatsix.com/liz/articles/olderparrot.html

http://991.com/newGallery/Budgie-Nightflight-337563.jpg

Was it this guy?

http://www.spillersrecords.co.uk/client_files/default/budgie_bandolier.jpg

^^^capt cook's actual favourite LP

Mention of the story I badly described here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/parrots-speak-lost-rainforest-tongue-721627.html. It is likely also apocryphal, to be honest, but who knows...

Really not surprised the Churchill parrot is a lie.

Also, I think you guys meant to post those pictures in the 'best album cover ever' thread.

Churchill story might be a lie, but that parrot still hated Nazis

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/deano-1.jpg

LET'S NOT GET DISTRACTED HERE

http://www.smilorama.com/img01/cute-parrot02.jpg

That's not the VVVO Parrot

parrots are scary.

haha "plucky bird survives without feathers"

but the picture i think i can remember still HAD feathers, but the feathers had lost their featheriness

http://www.old-print.com/mas_assets/full/F1641895103.jpg

parrots are scary.

Fuckin' dinosaurs, innit?

Illustration from The Joy of Pecks there. xp

tiny tiny dinosaurs LEARNING YOUR SWEARS

They've seen a cockatoo in their time I'll bet, eh? Eh? (xp)

http://images.smh.com.au/2011/08/31/2593473/cockybennett2729-420x0.jpg

^^^i think this is it!!!

118 and nothing whatever to do with captain cook

Cocky Bennett, great name!

lived to 120, died 1916, hence born in 1796

(they normally lived to c.80, so not totally implausible)

Who's a pretty boy then?

h. 1796, d. 1916

that bird is terrfying

terrible ideas #776860: every newborn child receives a parrot born on the same day

parrots that outlive their companion child are burned on a pyre

children that outlive their parents must make a small household shrine

PARROTS, damn

no, let's go with "parents" there

ALL PARENTS HAVE FEATHERS and so do cenobites

Do birds' beaks grow throughout their lives? Hence Cocky's crazy elongated beak?

Why else would you buy cuttle fish for yer budgie?

In the wild, budgies are well-known to consort with the beasts of the deep.

http://www.stillgigging.com/images/users/Budgie2008_582.jpg

Imagine sticking that CD in your budgie's cage one morning instead of his mirror.

http://www.yee.ch/B/BU/Budgie/Power-Supply/budgie-10.jpg

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/4149/cover_1955171512009.jpg

i feel i should throw all my records out and start from scratch

Partial to a bit of Budgie, I must admit

they only have a POX, a PO5 x 2 with someone, and a "let's talk about obscure metal" on ILM: the early covers i remember very well as a kid, but i'm not sure i ever heard any -- not classico-prog enough for my schoolchums despite mr dean's involvement

http://open.spotify.com/track/0FKnd40s4q4GD783tCKFEq

They weren't prog at all, apart from the occasional sensitive acoustic number

Wrong caged bird anyway, this is what you want:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/0546be280489a6fdcb5f3f90c8fd4951/135999.jpg

the billhook thread asked me if i wanted to put the post on THIS thread

i didn't, but i DID want to check that COCKY BENNETT is still itt in all his alarming glory

COCKY BENNETT