344 Wright, Early Records of the Carolina Paroquet. [july 



of the best judges, twenty years hence it will be known only in 

 history and from museum specimens.'" Has the prophecy been 

 fulfilled? Just previous to this communication (1888-1889) 

 Chapman records ^ it in Eastern Florida, and reports more or less 

 authentic indicate its presence in Oklahoma. Two years later 

 (1891) Merriam gives ^ an isolated record of it in Southern Mis- 

 souri, and Wayne ^ and Scott * record it from North and South 

 Florida respectively. The last apparent notice of this form in 

 the Hesh is that of Chapman^ for 1904 when he finds it still 

 present about Lake Okeechabee, Florida. 



In this state, the first records begin in 1587, when Laudonniere 

 in "The Description of the West Indies in generall, but chiefly 

 and particularly of Florida" says,^ "The foules are Turkeycocks, 



Partridges, Parrots " Four years preceding (1583), Sir George 



Peckham in " A true Report of the late discoveries — of the New- 

 found Lands, By that valiant and worthy Gentleman Sir Humfrey 

 Gilbert," holds that explorers in North America^ "doe testifie 

 that they have found in those countr^^es . . . . ; Parrots." About 

 the same time (1587), Thomas Hariot in speaking "Of Foule" of 

 Virginia, writes,^ " There are also Parrots . . . . , which although 

 with us they be not used for meat, yet for other causes I thought 

 good to mention." The final note of the sixteenth century comes 

 in Daniel Coxe's Carolana (Louisiana). He sent his first expedi- 

 tion up the Mississippi in 1598. He finds ^ "great companies of 

 turkeys, .... parrots, and many other sorts of curious birds differ- 

 ing from ours." 



The roll of records for the seventeenth century begins with 

 Captain John Smith who finds (1607-1609) in Virginia that 1° "In 



1 Proc. Linnaean Soc. of New Yoi'k, 1890, pp. 4-6. 



2 ' The Auk ', Vol. IX, p. 301. 

 >ibid.. Vol. XII, p. 367. 

 •ibid.. IX, p. 218. 



' Bird-Lore, Vol. VI, No. 3. June 1, 1904, p. 103. 



« Hakluyt, Richard. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Trafflques and Dis- 

 coveries of the English Nation. Hakluyt Soc. Extra Series, Vol. XVIII, p. 451. 

 Glasgow, 1904. 



Mbid., p. 115. 



8 ibid., pp. 369, 370. 



9 Hist. Colls, of Louisiana. By B. F. French. Part II, Phila., 1850, p. 261. 



IK Smith, Capt. John, etc.. Works of. 1608-1631. Edited by Edward Arber, 

 1884, p. 60. 



