Parrots have been equipped with a wonderful tool called a beak. And we can do all kinds of things with it, -some good, some bad and some downright wicked! A beak means that we can gnaw through twigs and branches and make nest holes in trees. And it also allows us to make some finishing touches to any furniture around the house. A parrot’s beak can best be described as a set of loppers, a chain saw, a chisel and a nail-puller all in one.
Humans have a poor apology for a beak called a nose which isn’t really good for anything except getting a cold. So they have to make some special tools of their own. And I’d like to tell you the story of one such human who used his artificial tools to carve some wood.
A rather plain and ordinary human lived in a cul-de-sac. And one day, he took delivery of a huge piece of solid wood. In fact it was so heavy that he had to get a neighbour to help him shift it off his driveway and into his garage. Well, once the wood was inside, the human set to work on it. In fact, he was in his garage for the best part of a month, only emerging to eat and sleep. Finally when the month was up, he flung open his garage doors and lifted out an incredible life-sized carving of a deer. And it looked absolutely perfect! Soon his neighbours were all gathering around in admiration and they asked him: “How did you manage to make it look so realistic?” To which the human modestly replied: “Well, I just kept chipping away at everything that didn’t look like a deer!”
