BIRDS OF KANSAS. 317 



and rapidity they grasp the shells, crush and extract the kernels. 

 Their nests are usually placed in holes or hollow cavities in 

 trees. In the spring of 1858, a small flock reared their young 

 in a large hollow limb of a giant sycamore tree, on the banks of 

 the IS^eosho Eiver, near Neosho Falls, Kansas. I have never 

 been able to procure their eggs. Ridgway says: "Eggs, 1.39x 

 1.07; ovate, short ovate, or rounded ovate; pure white." From 

 the following paper of Mr. Brewster's, in ''The Auk," YoL 6, 

 p. 336, the birds also probably nest in the branches of trees: 



"While in Florida, during February and March, 1889, I ques- 

 tioned everybody whom I met regarding the nesting of the Par- 

 oquet. Only three persons professed any knowledge on this 

 subject. The first two were both uneducated men — profes. 

 sional hunters of alligators and plume birds. Each of them 

 claimed to have seen Paroquets' nests, which they described as 

 flimsy structures, built of twigs, and placed on the branches of 

 cypress trees. One of them said he found a nest only the pre- 

 vious summer (1888), while fishing. By means of his pole he 

 tipped the nest over, and secured two young birds, which it con- 

 tained. 



"This account was so widely at variance with what has been 

 previously recorded regarding the manner of nesting of this 

 species, that I considered it, at the time, as a mere fabrication; 

 but afterwards it was unexpectedly and most strongly corrobo- 

 rated by Judge R. L. Long, of Tallahassee. The latter gentle- 

 man, who, by the way, has a very good general knowledge of 

 the birds of our Northern States, assured me that he had exam- 

 ined many nests of the Paroquet, built precisely as above de- 

 scribed. Formerly, when tlie birds were abundant in the 

 surrounding region, he used to find them breeding in large colo- 

 nies in the cypress swamps. Several of these colonies con- 

 tained at least a thousand birds each. They nested invariably 

 in small cypress trees, the favorite position being on a fork, near 

 the end of a slender, horizontal branch. Every such fork would 

 be occupied, and he has seen as many as forty or fifty nests in 

 one small tree. Their nests closely resemble those of the Caro- 

 lina Dove, being similarly composed of cypress twigs, put to- 



