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



winter cloisters. But I lived several years in North Carolina and 

 never was witness to an instance of it, yet I do not at all doubt but 

 there have been instances of belated flocks thus forced into such 

 shelter, and the extraordinary severity and perseverance of the 

 season might have benumbed them into a torpid sleepy state; but 

 that they all willingly should yield to so disagreeable and hazar- 

 dous a situation, does not seem reasonable or natural, when we 

 consider that they are a bird of the swiftest flight and impatient 

 of severe cold. They are easily tamed, when they become docile 

 and familiar, but never learn to imitate the human language." 



Before the end of the century, several travellers in quick succes- 

 sion furnish items of interest. In the reminiscences of O. M. 

 Spencer of Hamilton Co., Ohio, we read that ^ " In April (1792) .... 

 Flock of parraquets were seen, decked in their rich plumage of green 

 and gold." The same year, John Heckewelder in his journey to 

 the Wabash when he arrives at its mouth, finds ^ " The noise of 

 the many paroquets (a small kind of parrot) was dreadful and not 

 attuned to (his) ears." In 1793, Imlay only lists the ^ "Perroquet" 

 with its Linnsean designation, "Psittacus." In 1794, Loskiel 

 (thinking primarily of the Ohio region) writes,^ "A few green 

 Parrots (psittacus) are seen in the woods in summer, but are in 

 greater numbers further to the south." In the Mississippi valley, 

 Jan. 1, 1796, Andre Michaux when at Little River, enumerates 

 among the ^ " Birds :....; green Parroquets with yellow heads of 

 the small species; . . . . " At the end of this century or the begin- 

 ning of the next, John Davis, on a journey from Charleston, S. C, 

 to Coosahatchie in one of many shooting excursions in the woods, 

 writes,® "once we brought down some paroquets that were direct- 

 ing their course over our heads to Georgia." 



1 Howe, Henry Hist. Colls, of Ohio. 2nd edit. Cincinnati, 1847, p. 230. 



2 Penn. Mag. of Hist, and Biog. Vol. XII, p. 166. 



' Imlay, George. A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of 

 North America, etc. 2nd edit. London, 1793, p. 237. 



* Loskiel, George Henry. History of the Mission of the United Brethren among 

 the Indians in North America. In three parts. Transl. by C. I. La Trobe. 

 London, 1794 (original 1788), p. 92. 



5 Early Western Travels, 1748-1846. Edited by R. G. Thwaites. Cleveland, 

 O., 1904, Vol. Ill, p. 83. 



6 Davis, John. Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of Amer- 

 ica during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802. London, 1803, N. Y. edit., by A. J. 

 Morrison, 1909, p. 91. 



