546 ZYGODACTYLT. 



circrastaunces induce them commonly to visit much 

 higher latitudes ; so that following the great valley of the 

 Mississippi, they are seen to frequent the banks of the 

 Illinois, and occasionally to approach the southern 

 shores of Lake Michigan. Straggling parties even have 

 sometimes been seen in the valley of the Juniata in 

 Pennsylvania, and a flock, to the great surprise of the 

 Dutch inhabitants of Albany, are said to have appeared 

 in that vicinity. This species constantly inhabits and 

 breeds in the Southern States, and is so far hardy as to 

 make its appearance, commonly in the depth of winter, 

 along the woody banks of the Ohio, the interior of Ala- 

 bama, and the banks of the Mississippi and Missouri 

 around St. Louis, and other places, when nearly all other 

 birds have migrated before the storms of the season. 



The Carolina Parakeets in all their movements, which 

 are uniformly gregarious, show a peculiar predilection 

 for the alluvial, rich, and dark forests bordering the 

 principal rivers and larger streams, in which the tower- 

 ing cypress * and gigantic sycamore t spread their vast 

 summits, or stretch their innumerable arms, over a wide 

 waste of moving or stagnant waters. From these, the 

 beech, and the hack-berry, J they derive an important 

 supply of food. The flocks, moving in the manner of 

 wild pigeons, dart in swift and airy phalanx through the 

 green boughs of the forest ; screaming in a general con- 

 cert, they wheel in wide and descending circles round the 

 tall button-wood, and all alight in the same instant, their 

 green vesture, like the fairy mantle, rendering them 

 nearly invisible beneath the shady branches, where they 

 sit, perhaps arranging their plumage, and, shuffling side 

 by side, seem to caress, and scratch each other's heads 

 with all the fondness and unvarying friendship of affcc- 



♦ Cupressus disticha. \ Platanus occidentalis. | Celtis occidentalis. 



