430 PARROTS. 



In the depth of winter, when other resources begin to fail, 

 they, in common with the Yellow Bird and some other 

 Finches, assemble among the tall sycamores, 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. 

 With that peculiar caprice, or perhaps appetite, which char- 

 acterizes them, they are also observed to frequent the saline 

 springs or licks 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, which 

 they eat piecemeal in their 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 the former, they are so 

 bold or incautious as readily to become the prey of the sports- 

 man in great numbers. Peculiarity of food appears wholly to 

 influence the visits and residence of this bird, and in plain, 

 champaign, or mountainous countries they are wholly strangers, 

 though common along the banks of all the intermediate 

 watercourses and lagoons. 



Of their manners at the interesting period of propagation 

 and incubation we are not yet satisfactorily informed. They 

 nest in hollow trees and take little if any pains to provide more 

 than a simple hollow in which to lay their eggs, like the Wood- 

 peckers. They are at all times particularly attached to the 

 large sycamores, in the hollow trunks of which they roost in 

 close community, and enter at the same aperture into which 

 they climb. They are 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, either in very warm or incle- 

 ment weather, to sleep or pass away the time in indolent and 

 social security, like the Rupicolas of the Peruvian caves, at 



