346 THE FK^THEKED TRIBES. 



they liover over the screaming wounded or dying ; and returning and flpng around 

 the place where they miss their companions, seem in their sympathy to lose all idea of 

 impending danger. 



More fortunate in their excursions, they next proceed to gratify the calls of hunger, 

 and descend to the banks of the river or the neighbouring fields in quest of the inviting 

 kernels of the cockle-burr, and probably of the bitter seed, which they extract from their 

 husks with great dexterity. In the depth of winter, when other resources begin lo fail, 

 they, in common with the yellow-bird and some other finches, assemble among the tail 

 sj'camores, and, hanging from the extreme twigs in the most airy and graceful postures, 

 scatter around them a cloud of down from the pendant balls, in quest of the seeds which 

 now afford them an ample repast. AMth that peculiar caprice, or perhaps appetite, 

 which characterises them, they are also observed to frequent the saline springs or Ucl;s, 

 to gratify their uncommon taste for salt. Out of mere wantonness, they often frequent 

 the orchards, and appear delighted with the fruitless frolic of plucking apples from the 

 trees, and strewing them on the ground untasted. So common is this practice among 

 them in Arkansas territory, that no apples are ever suffered to ripen. They are also fond 

 of some sorts of berries, and particularly of mulberries, ^^■hich they eat piecemeal in theii- 

 usual manner, as they hold them by the foot. According to Audubon, they likewise 

 attack the outstanding stacks of grain in flocks, committing great waste ; and on these 

 occasions, as well as on the former, ihey are so bold or incautious as readily to become 

 the prey of the sportsman in great numbers. Peculiarity of food appears wholly to 

 influence the visits and residence of this bird, and in plain, champaign, or mountuiuous 

 countries, they are wholly strangers, though common along tlic banks of all the inter- 

 mediate watercourses and lagoons. 



Of their manners at the interesting period of their increase, we are not yet satis- 

 factorily informed. But our naturalists are constantly placing their eagerly-sought and 

 carefully-treasured information at our disposal, and we hail with pleasure and gratitude 

 their communications. It is manifest, however, that those birds nestle in hollow trees, 

 and take little, if any, pains to provide more than a simple hollow in which to lay 

 their eo'gs, like the woodpeckers. They are at all times particularly attached to the 

 laro'c sycamores, in the hollow trunks of which they roost in close community, and 

 enter at the same aperture, into which they climb. They arc said to cling close 

 to the sides of the tree, holding fast by the claws and bill ; and into these hollows 

 they often retire during the day, cither in very warm or inclement weather, to 

 sleep or pass away the time in indolent and social security, like the Itapkolax of the 

 Peruvian caves, and at length are only hastily aroused to forage at the calls of hunger. 

 Indeed, from the swiftness and celerity of their aerial movements, darting througli the 

 "■leaming sunshine, decked iu green and gold, it is obvious that their actions, as well as 

 their manners, are not calculated for any long endurance ; and shy, and retiring from all 

 society but that to which they are inseparably wedded, they rove abroad with incessant 

 activity, until their wants are gratified, when, hid from sight, they again relapse into 

 that indolence which seems a relief to their exertions. 



Audubon, in his account of the Carolina parrakects, says: "Their flight is rapid, 

 straight, and continued tlirough tlie forest.s, or over fields and rivers, and is accompanied 

 by inclmations of tlie body, which enable the observer to see altcriuitely tlieir upper and 

 under parts. They deviate from a direct course only when impediments occur, such as 

 trunks of trees or houses, in which case they glance aside in a very graceful nninner, as 

 much as may be necessary. A gciieral cry is kept up by tiie party, and it is seldom that 

 one of these birds is on the wing for ever so short a space, without uttering its cry. On 

 reachino- a spot which affords a supply of food, instead of alighting at once, as numy birds 

 do, the parrakeets take a good survey of the neighbourhood, passing over il in circles of 



