80 Capital Journal Salem, Ore, Thursday, Nov. S, 1949
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'THINKS HE'S A PERSON1
Raffles II, Talking Mynah Bird
Puts on First Press Conference
By HARMAN V. NICHOLS
Washington, Nov. 3 AIR) Raffles II behaved like a little man at
his first press conference.
When a pretty girl reporter came Into the room, he gave
the wolf call and then said, "Hello, darling! Oh boy!"
Raffles is a bird, a rare and right smart one. He's an Indian
Hill Mynah and is about to go-
on the radio from coast to coast.
He was brought here by the
lovely little lady who owns him
Zetta (Mrs. Carveth) Wells,
who authors, lectures, explores
produces movies and says things
on the radio and television.
Zetta also owned Raffles I,
which went around the world
telling war bonds, posing as the
"bird who thinks he is a per
son." He once appeared on Fred
Allen's program and the corn
median commented, "What a
wonderful carrier pigeon he'd
made for the army. He'd not
only deliver the message he'd
read It."
scientific piece about it and
that's how the legend started.
I never met the late Raffles
I but the two-year-old Raffles
II can't be far behind.
Thlt bird is solid black and
has yellow markings around the
neck.
When we arrived for the press
eonference at the Wardman
Park hotel, Mrs. Wells turned
the boy loose. He at once took
afnncy to the front of a photog
rapher's camera. The other
lensmen scooped their colleague.
Mrs. Wells had to guide the
interview along.
She asked Raffles II If he had
been In the service.
He hadn't, but he could whis
tle: "You're in the army now."
Which he did.
Then she asked the smart
feathered creature if he would
like to be a communist. He was
sitting on her Index finger at
the time and Immediately fell
over in her hand, playing like
he'd "rather be dead." He perk
ed up in a second and whistled
the "Star Spangled Banner"
from front chord to last.
We got to talking about birds
and Mrs. Wells said this split
ting tongue business to make a
bird talk is a lot of legend. It
all started, she said, when some
German came upon a tongue
tied crow. He took a knife and
un-tongue-tied the b'rd and
taught him to talk. Somebody
back in the long ago wrote a
Mrs. Wells can't talk about
Raffles H, without remember
ing the late lamented Raffles I.
The bird which out-talked the
talkative Fred Allen once re
ceived $500 for singing with the
San Francisco symphony and
paid his union dues to boot.
(Mrs. Wells has the union card
for proof.)
Well, anyhow Mrs. Wells had
her famous No. I bird at a so
ciety party in New York one
time. It was in the swankiest
room in the Waldorf Astoria.
One of the lovely old ladies
in sable walked up to the cage
to admire the pretty black crea
ture and then suddenly turned
stiff upright in her mink.
She called for Mrs. Wells, who
came running.
There, she said with her dig
nity up, was the column her
son was writing for a New York
newspaper there on the bottom
of a bird cage.
Mrs. Wells wasn't stopped for
long.
'Raffles," said she, with equal
dignity "is so smart he doesn't
read anything but the best literature."
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