2 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



orange, and yellow: they afterwards settled, in one body, on a 

 neighbouring tree, which stood detached from any other, covering 

 almost every twig of it, and the sun, shining strongly on their gay 

 and glossy plumage, produced a very beautiful and splendid 

 appearance." 



Conuropsis caroUnensi^, as a species, covered a wide range in east- 

 em North America, from the vicinity of the Great Lakes southward 

 to Florida and the Gulf States, and from Colorado (rarely) to the 

 Atlantic coast. For a full account, given in detail, of the former 

 range of the species and its gradual disappearance, the reader is 

 referred to a comprehensive article on the subject by Edwin M. 

 Hasbrouck (1891). As the species has been divided into two sub- 

 species since this was written, we shall consider here only the former 

 distribution of the eastern race, Conuropsis c. caroUnensis. The old- 

 est and northernmost records, of what was probably this race, 

 appeared in Bartram's Fragments (1799) in the following words: 



The two first of these birds were seen in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, 

 between thirty and forty years ago. The Psittacus, most probably the Psittacus 

 pertiuax, Illinois Parrot, or the Psittacus carolinensis, Carolina Parrot, has 

 been occasionally observed in Shareman's Valley, on Shareman's Creek, a branch 

 of the river Susquehanna, within twenty miles of the town of Carlisle. This 

 last fact seems to contradict the observation of Mr. William Bartram, who says, 

 "The parakeets (Psittacus carolinensis) never reach so far north as Pennsyl- 

 vania, which to me is unaccountable, considering they are a bird of such singu- 

 lar rapid flight, they could easily perform the journey in ten or twelve hours 

 from North-Carolina, where they are very numerous, and we abound with all 

 the fruits which they delight in." * * * i may add, that a very large flight 

 of parakeets, which came from the westward, was seen a few years ago, about 

 twenty-five miles to the north-west of Albany, in the State of New- York. 



The arrival of these birds in the depth of winter (January, 17S0) was, indeed, 

 a very remarkable circumstance. The more ignorant Dutch settlers were ex- 

 ceedingly alarmed. They imagined, in dreadful consternation, that it portended 

 nothing less calamitous than the destruction of the world. 



DeKay (1844) places this New York record as occurring in 1795. 

 The only record we have for New Jersey is one recently published 

 by Warren F. Eaton (1936) ; Albert E. Hedden (1841-1915) told his 

 son and nephew "of the occurrence of this species in East Orange, 

 Essex County, New Jersey, when he was a boy. They placed the 

 time between 1850 and 1860, and both recall exactly the same story. 

 The Paroquets occurred probably twice at least in hot weather (I 

 suspect September) and were considered very destructive to the small 

 household apple orchards, maintained by the family at that time. 

 The birds occurred in flocks and tore the apple fruit apart, extracting 

 the seeds." There seems to be no record for Delaware, but in Audu- 

 bon's time they were found as far north as the boundary line between 

 Virginia and Maryland, where a flock was seen and specimens were 



