Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1879 — A Bird That Turns Summersaults. [ARTICLE]

A Bird That Turns Summersaults.

There’s a pretty little bird that lives in China, and is called the Fork-Tailed Parus. He is about as big as a robin, and he has a red beak, orange colored throat, green back, yellow legs, black tail, and red-and-yellow wings. Nearly all the colors are in his dress, you see, and he is a gay fellow. But this bird has a trick known by no other birds that ever I heard of. He turns summersaults! Not only does he do this in his free life on the trees, but also after he is caught and put into a cage. He just throws his head far back, and over he goes, touching the bars of the cage, and alighting upon his feeton the floor or on a perch. He will do it over and over a number of times without stopping, as though he thought it great fun. All his family have the same trick, and they are called Tumblers. The people of China are fond of keeping them in cages and seeing them tumble. Travelers often have tried to bring them to our country, but a sea voyage is not good for them, and they are almost sure to die on the way.—“Jack-in-the-Pul-pit,” in St. Nicholas for May.