大象传媒

My Uncle John was a flight lieutenant in the RAF during the war and was posted to the Gambia.

A part of the forest had been cleared to put in a runway for the use of heavy aircraft and there were tents to accommodate the men. John slept in a dormitory tent with some of the other pilots, while others were out training or on missions. They were never all together and the mosquitoes were very bad and even though they took daily doses of quinine most of them had malaria. More frightening than malaria was the thought of getting black water fever.

One of the pilots bought an African grey parrot for a companion and he came to live on a perch in the tent. African greys are a small breed, intelligent and said to be the best talkers.

In the morning early, at daybreak, the aircraft that had been out that night would come droning in, one after the other, as the sleeping pilots were waking. Those in the tent could not distinguish one engine from another but the Polly knew the sound of his owner's aircraft. As he heard it approaching, he would climb down from his perch, out of the tent, and start walking down the verge by the side of the runway. When his pilot got out and handed the aircraft over to the ground crew, he would find the Polly waiting and would hoist him up on to his shoulder.

John had learned to sleep through the noise of the returning flights. One morning the Polly was listening out as one aircraft followed another one in, then he heard what he was listening out for and began to climb down from his perch. At that moment the engine cut out and was followed by a terrific crash. The parrot screamed an unearthly sound that nobody had ever heard before. John woke in alarm. Years later when he told me about it he said that he still wakened in the night sometimes to the sound of that scream. The aircraft had crashed, burst into flames and all lives were lost in her.

The other pilots went on looking after the parrot and when the war was over they sadly arranged for him to be housed at London Zoo. After this whenever any of them visited London they went to see the parrot. They may not have visited for years but the parrot would recognise them from a long way off and start dancing back and forth on his perch with joy and he only did this for them.

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