Janice Bateman, age 13, of Boise, Idaho, for her question:

Does a talking parrot have an extra large brain?

All birds have small, streamlined heads and small brains inside their small skulls. A silly person is sometimes called a bird brain because he or she appears to be limited in the good sense department. Most birds, however, are smart enough to cope with life and enjoy it.

A pet parrot seems to be a very sensible character. He has the good sense to cope with life in captivity and enjoy it. His bright round eye watches whatever his human friends are doing with great interest. Then he cocks his head so that the eye on the other side can get a different slant on the situation. Watching him, you might think that he is forming an original and quite scholarly opinion. When he speaks, you feel quite sure that he is the brainiest of birds. "Polly wants a cracker!" he says, loud and clear. You give him a cracker, he accepts it and starts to nibble.

By now you are sure that Pretty Polly knows exactly what he is talking about. But if . _ you knew him better, you would realize that this is not so at all. He is likely to say, "Polly wants a cracker, Polly wants a cracker," even when he has a cracker in his claw and six others in his cage. The truth is that no talking bird understands what he says or =chat you say. Of course, like any pet, he senses tender affection in your words    but he has no idea what they mean.

Perhaps you can understand his parrot mind if you try to put yourself in his place. At some time in your life, no doubt you have failed to pay attention when someone is talking. You hear the sounds, chatter chatter chatter, but your wandering mind misses the meaning. For you, of course, this is a lapse and your human brain can and usually does do much better. But the brain of a parrot cannot.

Birds, with their little bird brains, are smart enough to cope with all kinds of problems that concern them. They can even learn from a patient human teacher. But many other animals are better than the birds at learning from human instructors. In this department, the birds are outsmarted by squirrels and pigs, cats and dolphins and the great apes. However, they rate much higher than the snakes, the fish and the worms.

For his size, the parrot has a normal sized brain. And he is not the best learner of the bird world. The champ is thought to be the raven, a glossy, black Omarty who has been taught to count to seven and solve a few simple problems. Chickens can also learn to count. There is not much difference between the size of their brains and that of the parrot. Pretty Polly is not a champion counto r.~or problem solver. But as an imitator, his talents are astounding and sometimes downright dazzling.

Only a few talking birds learn to parrot a human word without help. As a ruleg;Pretty Polly is taught by a very patient human friend. Sometimes a cover is put over his cage during the lessons. The phrase for him to learn is repeated again and again and again, in exactly the same tone. At last, usually at long last, he repeats it. The lesson is now thoroughly learned and for the rest of his life he will repeat it whenever it pops into his feathery head.