Studying
A magpie, belonging to a barber at Rome, could imitate to a nicety almost
every word it heard. Some trumpets happened one day to be sounded before
the shop, and for a day or two afterwards the magpie was quite mute, and
seemed pensive and melancholy. All who knew it were greatly surprised at
its silence; and it was supposed that the sound of the trumpets had so
stunned it, as to deprive it at once of both voice and hearing. It soon
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appeared, however, that this was far from being the case; for the bird had
been all the time occupied in profound meditation, studying how to imitate
the sound of the trumpets; and when at last master of it, the magpie, to
the astonishment of all its friends, suddenly broke its long silence, by a
perfect imitation of the flourish of trumpets it had heard; observing with
the greatest exactness all the repetitions, stops, and changes. The
acquisition of this lesson had, however, exhausted the whole of the
magpie's stock of intellect; for it made it forget everything it had
learned before.