THE CAROLINA PAROQUET. 



( Conurus carolinensis. ) 



BY LYNDS JONES. 



FEW birds indeed can lay claim to 

 such beautiful and varied dress 

 as our native paroquet. But for 

 this dress and for certain habits 

 which will be spoken of more particu- 

 larly a little later, he has had to pay a 

 most severe penalty. Once an abun- 

 dant bird over the whole southeastern 

 portion of the country, ranging com- 

 monly as far north as southern Ohio 

 and Illinois, and sometimes even as far 

 north as southern Michigan and New 

 York, and as far west as eastern Colo- 

 rado, his numbers and range have been 

 reduced to a few individuals in the 

 wilds of the Indian Territory and the 

 adjacent parts of Texas, and' the fast- 

 nesses of the Florida swamps. The re- 

 gion over which he ranged so numer- 

 ously in advance of civilization, suffers 

 a distinct loss in his extermination. 



It is hardly fair to lay the blame for 

 the disappearance of this bird solely 

 at the door of the plume-hunters and 

 collectors, for it must be admitted that 

 the paroquet was a real menace to the 

 fruit-grower and farmer when he was 

 abundant. Even his extreme fondness 

 for the fruit of the cockle-bur, thistle, 

 and a few other noxious plants, could 

 hardly atone for the complete ruin of 

 the apple crop, or his serious inroads 

 upon the wheat or corn field. One 

 could not stand tamely by while a flock 

 of these birds, with all their beauty, 

 stripped his orchard of every blossom 

 and bud. 



The food of the paroquet was entirely 

 vegetable, consisting of the seed of the 

 cockle-bur, as already stated, sycamore 

 and cypress seed, pecan and beech nuts, 

 the fruit of the pawpaw, mulberries, 

 wild grapes and various other wild 

 fruits as well as cultivated fruits, the 

 seeds of pine cones and the burgrass. 

 Grains of various kinds were eaten 

 while in the milk, and Mr. Frank M. 

 Chapman found them eating the seeds 

 of thistles. So varied a diet enabled 

 these birds to pass the winter in the 

 northern parts of their range as well as 



farther south. It has been stated that 

 paroquets have been found hibernating 

 in hollow trees in the coldest winters. 

 If they were actually found in such 

 places they were undoubtedly simply 

 taking refuge from some severe storm, 

 to issue forth again when it had passed. 



The paroquet's strong, hooked beak 

 was probably so formed for the cutting 

 of stems and husks of plants and the 

 crushing of seeds and nuts, but he also 

 finds it useful in climbing about trees 

 as an aid to his yoked feet, and as 

 a partial support while he sleeps in 

 some hollow tree, the bill being hooked 

 over a projection or into a convenient 

 crevice. 



Major Charles E. Bendire describes 

 the flight as undulating, like that of the 

 woodpeckers, but very swift, accom- 

 panied by a continuous chattering while 

 on the wing. The birds remain to- 

 gether in flocks of from six to twenty 

 individuals (before they became so 

 scarce, by hundreds), and are very de- 

 voted to each other. The cries of a 

 wounded companion will always re- 

 call the whole flock to his aid, thus 

 enabling the hunter to kill every bird 

 in the flock. It is this characteristic, 

 no doubt, which has very largely caused 

 the rapid disappearance of the birds 

 before advancing civilization. 



The nesting-habits of the paroquet 

 are in some doubt, but the evidence 

 seems to ipdicate that the birds may 

 reartheir brood either in a cavity in a 

 tree or build a slight nest after the 

 fashion of the mourning-dove. Such 

 nests seem to be largely confined to 

 the cypress swamps of Florida. The 

 eggs, several of which have been se- 

 cured from birds in confinement, are 

 pure glossy white, smooth, and rather 

 ovate in shape, somewhat larger than 

 those of the mourning-dove, andaverag- 

 ing 1.39 x .1.07 of an inch. 



These birds seem to nest in colonies, 

 a fact which led Major Bendire to sug- 

 gest that when the colonies were very 

 large the birds were forced to build 



170 



