POLYCARP

I think it is for the scenery, and that it does not need to be there, as I think that the author just wants to make it a 'grandeur' effect. Then again, he might just want to show that the story is very old (tad unnecessary, since we all know its about the Holocaust-all on the cover page), when people had garden dwarfs in their gardens. Mind you, it might be a sort of joke - Poly is Polly the parrot and carp is a kind of fish I think. Hmm... Polycarp the Parrotfish.