[Natural History Quotes

“Magpies love to hear words which they can speak; and not only do they learn them, but they enjoy it; and as they repeat them over to themselves with the greatest care and attention, make no secret of the interest they feel. It is a well-known fact, that a magpie has died before now, when it has found itself mastered by a difficult word that it could not pronounce. Their memory, however, will fail them if they do not from time to time hear the same word repeated; and while they are trying to recollect it, they will show the most extravagant joy, if they happen to hear it.

Natural History Book X, chapter lix”
― Pliny the Elder, [Natural History: Bks.VIII-XI v. 3] (By: Pliny The Elder) [published: December, 1940]