
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 23, 1994                   TAG: 9407210016
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Todd Jackson
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DELEGATE PROVES HE'S FOR THE BIRD

If you saw Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, waving his arms and his suit coat outside the Roanoke Times & World-News building Wednesday afternoon, he wasn't berating a reporter for misquoting him.

After appearing in court with a client, the attorney was on his way to lunch about 12:30 p.m. when he spotted a parakeet perched on the wall of a flower bed. The green bird with red and yellow markings blended in with some geraniums.

Griffith and a reporter decided the bird was tame and probably was lost or had escaped from its owner. Griffith then tried to catch it.

But the squawking bird rejected Griffith's attempt to get it to roost on his finger. Griffith stepped up his efforts, but the bird took to the air. It was last seen flying in the direction of the Virginia Transportation Museum on Norfolk Avenue.

by CNB