THE CAROLINA PARROT. 149 



time in confinement, throwing so much light upon 

 their peculiar manners, that we cannot forbear in- 

 serting it: 



"Anxious to try the effect of education on one of 

 those which I procured at Big Bone Lick, and which 

 was but slightly wounded in the wing, I fixed up a 

 place for it in the stern of my boat, and presented 

 it with some Cockle Burs, which it freely fed on in 

 less than an hour after being on board. The inter- 

 mediate time between eating and sleeping was occu- 

 pied in gnawing the sticks that formed its place of 

 confinement, in order to make a practicable breach, 

 which it repeatedly effected. When I abandoned 

 the river, and travelled by land, I wrapped it up 

 closely in a silk handkerchief, tying it tightly around, 

 and carried it in my pocket. When I stopped for 

 refreshment, I unbound my prisoner, and gave it its 

 allowance, which it generally despatched with great 

 dexterity, unhusking the seeds from the bur in a 

 twinkling; in doing which it always employed its 

 left foot to hold the bur, as did several others that I 

 kept for some time. In recommitting it to ' durance 

 vile/ we generally had a quarrel, during which it 

 frequently paid me in kind for the wound I had in- 

 flicted, and for depriving it of liberty, by cutting 

 and almost disabling several of my fingers with its 

 sharp and powerful bill. The path through the wil- 

 derness between Nashville and Natchez is in some 

 places bad beyond description. There are dangerous 

 creeks to swim, miles of morass to struggle through, 

 rendered almost as gloomy as night by a prodigious 

 13* 



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