LOUISIANA PARAKEET 11 



sylvania (Juniata River and Shermans Valley). East to Pennsyl- 

 vania (Shermans Valley) ; casually the District of Columbia (Wash- 

 ington) ; casually West Virginia (White Sulphur Springs) ; South 

 Carolina (Pine Barrens and Edding Island) ; Georgia; and Florida 

 (Oklawaha River, Wekiva River, and Micco) ; south to Florida 

 (Micco, Lake Okeechobee, Tampa, Tarpon Springs, Old Town, and 

 Tallahassee) ; southern Louisiana (Bayou Sara and St. Mary) ; and 

 central Texas (Brownwood). West to central Texas (Brownwood) ; 

 eastern Oklahoma (Caddo and Fort Gibson) ; and casually eastern 

 Colorado (Fort Lyon, Denver, and the Little Thompson River). 



Casual records. — Several of the records that figure in the range as 

 above outlined can be considered as little more than casual occur- 

 rences, but this status must be accorded a flock reported 25 miles 

 northwest of Albany, N. Y., in January 1780, and to flocks observed 

 "many years ago" at Buffalo and West Seneca, N. Y. There also is 

 an indefinite record of this species in East Orange, Essex County, 

 N. J., sometime between 1850 and 1860. 



Systematists now consider the species as separable into two geo- 

 graphic races, the true Carolina parakeet, C. c. carolinensis, being the 

 eastern form that ranged west to Alabama, while the Louisiana para- 

 keet, C. c. ludovicianus, ranged westward from Mississippi, Tennessee, 

 Kentucky, and Ohio. 



Egg dates. — Florida : 2 records, April 2 and 26. 



CONUROPSIS CAROLINENSIS LUDOVICIANUS Gmelin 



LOUISIANA PARAKEET 



HABITS 



In describing this pale race of Conuropsis, Outram Bangs (1913) 

 says: "For many years it has been common knowledge among the 

 older set of American ornithologists that the Carolina paroquet 

 divided into two very distinct geographical races." He says of its 

 characters: "A much paler bird than Conuropsis c. caroUnsnsis 

 (Linn.) ; yellow portions of head and neck pale lemon yellow or 

 picric yellow, instead of lemon yellow or lemon chrome; green of 

 upper parts much paler and more bluish, verdigris green to variscite 

 green on wing coverts and sides of neck; under parts dull green- 

 yellow glossed with variscite green; bend of wing and feathers of 

 tibia paler, purer yellow, less orange." Mr. Ridgway (1916) adds: 

 "Greater wing-coverts, proximal secondaries, and basal portion of 

 outer webs of primaries more pronouncedly and more extensively 

 yellowish, contrasting more strongly with the general green color; 

 size averaging decidedly greater." The latter author says of its for- 

 mer range: "Formerly inhabiting the entire Mississippi Valley (ex- 

 cept open prairies and plains) , from West Virginia to eastern Colo- 



