'Goodbye. Don't forget to feed the parrot!', shrieked Flora, who disliked this prolongation of the ceremony of saying farewell, as every civilised traveller must.

'What parrot?' they all shrieked back from the fast-receding platform, just as they were meant to do.

But it was too much trouble to reply. Flora contented herself with muttering, 'Oh, any parrot, bless you all'...

--Stella Gibbons, 'Cold Comfort Farm'