to the bark, and crawl into the hole to pass the night. When such a hole
does not prove sufficient to hold the whole flock, those around the entrance
hook themselves on by their claws, and the tip of the upper mandible,
and look as if hanging by the bill. I have frequently seen them
in such positions by means of a glass, and am satisfied that the bill is
not the only support used in such cases.
When wounded and laid hold of, the Parakeet opens its bill, turns
its head to seize and bite, and, if it succeed, is capable of inflicting
a severe wound. It is easily tamed by being frequently immersed in
water, and eats as soon as it is placed in confinement. Nature seems to
have implanted in these birds a propensity to destroy, in consequence of
which they cut to atoms pieces of wood, books, and, in short, every thing
that comes in their way. They are incapable of articulating words, however
much care and attention may be bestowed upon their education;
and their screams are so disagreeable as to render them at best very indifferent
companions. The woods are the habitation best fitted for them,
and there the richness of their plumage, their beautiful mode of flight,
and even their screams, afford welcome intimation that our darkest forests
and most sequestered swamps are not destitute of charms.
They are fond of sand in a surprising degree, and on that account
are frequently seen to alight in flocks along the gravelly banks about the
creeks and rivers, or in the ravines of old fields in the plantations, when
they scratch with bill and claws, flutter and roll themselves in the sand,
and pick up and swallow a certain quantity of it. For the same purpose,
they also enter the holes dug by our Kingsfisher. They are fond
of saline earth, for which they visit the different Licks interspersed in
our woods.
Our Parakeets are very rapidly diminishing in number; and in some
districts, where twenty-five years ago they were plentiful, scarcely any
are now to be seen. At that period, they could be procured as far up
the tributary waters of the Ohio as the Great Kenhawa, the Scioto, the
heads of the Miami, the mouth of the Manimee at its junction with Lake
Erie, on the Illinois River, and sometimes as far north-east as Lake
Ontario, and along the eastern districts as far as the boundary line between
Virginia and Maryland. At the present day, very few are to be
found higher than Cincinnati, nor is it until you reach the mouth of
the Ohio that Parakeets are met with in considerable numbers. I should
think that along the Mississippi there is not now half the number that
existed fifteen years ago.
Their flesh is tolerable food, when they are young, on which account
many of them are shot. The skin of their body is usually much covered
with the mealy substances detached from the roots of the feathers. The
head especially is infested by numerous minute insects, all of which shift
from the skin to the surface of the plumage, immediately after the bird's
death. Their nest, or the place in which they deposit their eggs, is simply
the bottom of such cavities in trees as those to which they usually retire
at night. Many females deposit their eggs together. I am of opinion
that the number of eggs which each individual lays is two, although I
have not been able absolutely to assure myself of this. They are nearly
round, and of a light greenish white. The young are at first covered
with soft down, such as is seen on young Owls. During the first season,
the whole plumage is green; but towards autumn a frontlet of carmine
appears. Two years, however, are passed before the male or female are
in full plumage. The only material differences which the sexes present
externally are, that the male is rather larger, with more brilliant plumage.
I have represented a female with two supernumerary feathers in
the tail. This, however, is merely an accidental variety.
PSITTACUS CAROLINENSIS, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 141.—Lath. Ind. Orn. vol. i.
p. 93.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 4 1 .
CAROLINA PARROT, Lath. Synops. vol. i. p. 227-—Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 89.
PI. 26. fig. 1.
Adult Male. Plate XXVI. Fig. 1, 1, 1.
Bill short, bulging, very strong and hard, deeper than broad, convex
above and below, with a cere at the base ; upper mandible curved from
the base, convex on the sides, the margin overlapping, with an angular
process, the tip trigonal, acute, decimate, much exceeding the under mandible,
which is very short, broadly convex on the back, truncate at the
extremity. Nostrils basal, round, open, placed in the cere. Head very
large. Neck robust. Body rather elongated. Feet short and robust;
tarsus scaly all round; toes scutellate above, flat beneath, two behind
and two before, the latter united at the base; claws curved, acute.
Plumage compact and imbricated on the back, blended on the head,
neck, and under parts. Orbital space bare. Wings long, second and
third quills longest. Tail long, wedge-shaped, of twelve, narrow, tapering
feathers.