CAROLINA PARAKEET 9 



had been neatly severed by the sharp chisel-like bill, while the ground beneath 

 favorite trees would be strewn with the scattered down. * * * 



Two days passed before I again met Conurus, and this time to better advan- 

 tage. It was a wet and drizzling morning when we found a flock of six birds 

 feeding on thistles at the edge of a "prairie." Perched on the leafless 

 branches of the tree before us, their brilliant green plumage showed to the best 

 advantage, as we approached through the pines without difiiculty. Several 

 were skillfully dissecting the thistles they held in their feet, biting out the 

 milky seed while the released fluffy down floated away beneath them. There 

 was a sound of suppressed conversation ; half articulate calls. * * * 



There was an evident regularity in the habits of the birds we afterwards 

 observed — in all about fifty, in flocks of fi'om six to twenty. At an early hour 

 they left their roost in the hummock bordering the river and passed out into 

 the pines to feed, always, so far as I observed, selecting thistle patches, and 

 eating the seeds only when in the milky stage. At about ten o'clock they 

 returned to the hummock and apparently to some favorite tree, here to pass the 

 rest of the morning and early afternoon, when they again started out to feed, 

 returning to the roost just before sunset. A flock of these birds feeding among 

 the thistles is a most beautiful and animated sight ; one is almost persuaded 

 not to disturb them. There is constant movement as they fly from plant to 

 plant, or when securing thistles they fly with them in their bills to a neighbor- 

 ing tree, there to dissect them at their leisure. The loud rolling call was 

 apparently uttered only when on the wing, but when at rest, or feeding, there 

 was a loud conversational murmur of half articulate, querulous notes and calls. 



Cottam and Kiiappen (1939) examined the stomach and crop of 

 one bird, of which they say : "Except for two rabbit hairs, two bits of 

 the bird's own feathers, and two fragments of an indeterminable ant, 

 which formed only traces, the entire content consisted of the remains 

 of no fewer than thirty-two seeds of loblolly pine {Pinus taeda).'''' 



Behavior. — Audubon (1842) writes: 



The flight of the Parakeet is rapid, straight, and continued through the 

 forests, or over fields and rivers, and is accompanied by inclinations of the body 

 which enable the observer to see alternately their upper and under parts. 

 They deviate from a direct course only when impediments occur, such as the 

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

 manner, merely as much as may be necessary. A general cry is kept up by the 

 party, and it is seldom that one of these birds is on wing for ever so short a 

 space without uttering its cry. On reaching a spot which affords a supply of 

 food, instead of alighting at once, as many other birds do, the Parakeets take 

 a good survey of the neighborhood, passing over it in circles of great extent, 

 first above the trees, and then gradually lowering until they almost touch the 

 ground, when suddenly re-ascending they all settle on the tree that bears the 

 fruit of which they are in quest, or on one close to the field in which they 

 expect to regale themselves. 



They are quite at ease on trees or any kind of plant, moving sidewise, climb- 

 ing or hanging in every imaginable posture, assisting themselves very dexter- 

 ously in all their motions with their bills. They usually alight extremely close 

 together. I have seen branches of trees as completely covered by them as they 

 could possibly be. If approached before they begin their plundering, they 

 appear shy and distrustful, and often at a single cry from one of them, the 

 whole take wing, and probably may not return to the same place that day. 

 178223—40 2 



