diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
   <section>
     <tag class='b' id='inner'>subtext</tag>
   </section>
+  <?pitarget pi-text?>
 </body>
 """
 
@@ -1379,6 +1380,11 @@
         self.assertEqual(tree.findtext("tag"), 'text')
         self.assertEqual(tree.findtext("section/tag"), 'subtext')
 
+    def test_pi_parsing(self):
+        elem = ET.XML(SAMPLE_XML)
+        root = ET.ElementTree(elem).getroot()
+        self.assertEqual(root[-1].tag, ET.ProcessingInstruction)
+        
     def test_bug_xmltoolkit28(self):
         # .//tag causes exceptions