^ 1912 J Wright, Early Records of the Carolina Paroquet. o49 



ladies, it is doubtless on this account that we see so few of these 

 in France." Following DuPratz, are three short notices. In 

 1776, "The History of North America" (London, 1776, p. 251), 

 "With regard to the winged species" of Florida, remarks, "Here 

 are vast numbers of...., parrots, ... .In his Notes written in 

 1781, Jefferson merely mentions^ " Psitlacus Carolinensis. The 

 Parrot of Carolina. Perroquet." in one place; in the other, it is 

 only incidentally that he speaks of it. In speaking of the climate 

 of the Mississippi valley, he says,^ "if we may believe travellers, 

 it becomes warmer there than it is in the same latitude on the sea 

 side. Their testimony is strengthened by the vegetables and 

 animals which subsist and multiply there naturally, and do not 



on our coast Perroquets even winter on the Sciota, in 



the 39th degree of latitude." Three years later, 1784, John 

 Filson just notes " " the perroquet, a bird every way resembling 

 a parrot but much smaller"; 



In 1791, William Bartram writes of it at considerable length. 

 While speaking of Cupressus disticha (Cypress), he says,^ "Paro- 

 quets are commonly seen hovering and fluttering on their tops: 

 they delight to shell the balls, its seed being their favorite food." 

 In his list of birds, he gives " Psittacus Caroliniensis, the parrot of 

 Carolina or parrakeet." "These are natives of Carolina and 

 Florida where they breed and continue the year round." "The 

 parakeet (psiticus caroliniensis) never reach so far North as 

 Pennsylvania, which to me is unaccountable, considering they are 

 a bird of such singular 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 was assured in Carolina, that these birds, for a month or two 

 in the coldest winter weather, house themselves in hollow Cypress 

 trees, clinging fast to each other like bees in a hive, where they 

 continue in a torpid state until the warmth of the returning spring 

 reanimates them, when they issue forth from their late dark, cold 



1 Jefferson, Thomas. Notes of the State of Virginia, 1825, p. 97, 107. 



2 Filson, John. The Discovery, Settlement and present State of Kentucky, 

 etc. Wilmington, 1784, p. 26. 



3 Bartram, William. Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, 

 East and West Florida, etc. Phila., 1791, pp. 91, 92, 289, 290, 301. 



