ORDER OF PARROT-LIKE BIRDS 



Order PsiV.aci; family Psittacida 



SHE order of Parrot-like birds (Psittaci) is characterized by a relatively short, 

 hooked bill; feet with four toes, two forward and two backward, and per- 

 fectly adapted for grasping and climbing as well as for holding food when 

 eating; tongue short, usually thick and fleshy, sometimes with the tip brush- 

 like or fringed; tail-feathers usually numbering twelve; secondaries acutely 

 conical; and by various other anatomical peculiarities. They are noisy in 

 the wild state, their voices harsh and unmusical. Many of the species, but 

 not all, learn to speak in captivity. 



The typical Parrots occur throughout the tropical and most of the 

 subtropical portions of both hemispheres. They are the only Parrot-like 

 birds found in America or Africa. The species of typical Parrots are very 

 numerous, more than five hundred and fifty being known, of which number, however, only 

 one, the Carolina Paroquet, is a resident of the United States, and but one other, the 

 Thick-billed Parrot, casually crosses the international boundary at the south. 



Parrots, it is believed, mate for life.. Their eggs are immaculate white and are usually 

 deposited in the trunks of trees ; the young when hatched are either partly or entirely covered 

 with down and are cared for in the nest. 



The Parrot family are not good walkers, but they can climb, and they fly exceedingly 

 well, often going long distances in search of their food of fruit and seeds. Bright colors 

 predominate in the plumage and there is but slight, and in many species no, sexual variation 

 in coloration. 



CAROLINA PAROQUET 

 Conuropsis carolinensis (Linnccus) 



A. O. U. Number 382 



Other Names. — Kelinky ; Carolina Parrakeet. 



Generrl Description. — Length, 13 inches. Color, 

 green with yellow head. 



Color. — Forehead, front of crown, lores, space below 

 eyes, and upper part of cheeks, orange ; rest of head and 

 neck (all round), clear lemon yellow; back and 

 shoulders, clear yellowish-green, the rump, brighter and 

 less yellowish-green ; lesser and middle wing-coverts, 

 deep Paris green margined with paler and brighter 

 green ; greater coverts and inner secondaries more 

 yellowish-green, paler and more yellowish-green termi- 

 nally and along margin of outer webs ; secondaries 

 (except innermost ones) and primary coverts, dark 

 green, the primaries similar but becoming darker and 

 duller terminally (especially on inner webs, where pass- 

 ing into dusky on margin), the longer primaries (except 

 outermost) broadly edged with pale greenish-yellow 

 basally ; upper tail-coverts and tail, clear light parrot 

 green with black shafts, the shafts of middle feathers, 

 whitish basally ; under parts of body, including fore- 

 neck and under tail-coverts, clear light apple green, 



the under wing-coverts, similar hut more yellowish- 

 green, sometimes intermixed with yellow ; bend of wing, 

 orange intermixed with yellow ; anal region and lower 

 portion of thighs, yellow, sometimes tinged with orange; 

 under primary coverts and under surface of primaries, 

 brownish-gray, tinged with yellowish-olive, the under 

 surface of tail similar but more strongly tinged with 

 yellowish-olive; bill, light cream-buflf or cream-white; 

 iris, dark brown ; bare eye space, pale flesh color or 

 pinkish white ; legs and feet, pale flesh color or pinkish 

 white. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: In hollow tree. Ecr.s : 3 

 to 5. wliitc. 



Distribution. — Formerly inhabiting the Atlantic 

 coastal plain of the United States, from Florida to Vir- 

 ginia (occasionally to eastern New York), and west to 

 Texas, Oklahoma. Colorado, and north to Iowa and 

 Wisconsin, but now totally extirpated over much the 

 greater part of its former range and so nearly extinct 

 that only a few small colonies may yet exist in remote 

 and uninhabited parts of southern Florida. 



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