Some Birds Talk Too Much! (1944), the War Department's gagged parrot

Some birds talk too much! is the War Department's 1944 "Parrot" security poster from the Adjutant General's Office. A green parrot with a bow tied around its orange beak shares the sheet with a speech cloud, above the slogan "silence means security!!" (NAID 513597).

A parrot with its beak tied shut

The joke is a pun, which the archive reads as tying parrot chatter to careless speech. A green parrot has a bow tied around its orange beak. A speech cloud carries the headline, and the slogan runs across the foot of the sheet. The imprint names the poster, gives the regulation for ordering more copies, and dates the printing.

Some birds

talk

too much!

silence means security!!

[imprint:] W.D., A.G.O. "Parrot" Security Poster. Additional copies may be requisitioned as prescribed in AR 310-200, 1 May 1943, as changed by Changes No. 2, 15 September 1943.

[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944-O-586551

A requisition line, not an appeal

The issuer is the War Department's Adjutant General's Office, and the sheet tells its readers how to get more: requisition them under Army Regulation 310-200 of 1 May 1943, as changed on 15 September 1943. That is the language of a supply system, and it places the poster inside the Army's own paperwork. FRAME still records the audience as "Domestic public" and the purpose as "Warn or inform", with security and surveillance among the themes. The Government Printing Office job number dates the printing to 1944.

Silence as a habit

FRAME tags fear appeal and transfer, and notes that little direct threat is shown. The bird stands in for the reader, and the bow is the instruction. The archive's description lists no spy, grave or enemy face, only the gagged bird and its warning.

That restraint is to the poster's credit. Asking people not to repeat sailing dates or troop movements in wartime is reasonable. The weak point is the breadth. The poster does not say which talk. It treats silence as a virtue in itself, and a free country runs on talk. As a reminder from the Army, ordered through its own supply rules, the sheet is fair; as a rule for citizens at large it would be a worse thing.

Other War Department security posters carry labels of their own. The 1943 "Owl" security poster tells the soldier to "be like that Old Bird", and the 1942 WAAC security poster shows a woman with a finger to her lips. Don't Kill Her Daddy, from the same year, names the cost in its title. The rumor clinics case study treats newspaper counter-speech as a different answer to loose talk.