Vol. XXIX1 



1912 



] Wright, Early Records of the Carolina Paroquet. 351 



In the earlier half of the nineteenth century many of the travel- 

 lers in North America record the presence of the paroquet. Capt. 

 Matthew Phelps when "Among the wild fowl" of the Mississippi 

 River, says/ "I observed ... .paroquets .... " At Christmas 

 camp, Dec. 25, 1806, near Brown Canon, Colo, (near source of 

 Arkansas river, and 7 miles above Salida which is also above the 

 Grand Canon of the Arkansas) Capt. Zebulon M. Pike ^ " Caught 

 a bird of a new species {Conurus carolinensis) having made a trap 

 for him. This bird is of a green color, almost the size of a quail, 

 had a small tuft on its head like a pheasant, and was of a carnivor- 

 ous species; it differed from any bird we ever saw in the United 

 States. We kept him with us in a small wicker cage, feeding 

 him on meat, until I left the interpreter on the Arkansaw, with 

 whom I left it. We at one time took a companion of the same 

 species and put them in the same cage, when the first resident never 

 ceased attacking the stranger until he killed him." The same 

 year, Priscilla Wakefield (at St. Juans, Florida) in discussing the 

 cypress where the eagles fix their nests, notes that ^ " paroquets, 

 venture to approach the royal bird, and often perch on these 

 inaccessible branches. The paroquets are allured by the seeds 

 which are their favorite repast." In 1807 George Heriot claims * 

 that "parrots" are of "the birds of the southern parts of Canada," 

 and that " The northern parts of Canada are visited in the milder 

 seasons by . . . ., parrots, . . . . " The following year, the Travels 

 of the hated Thomas Ashe come out. Wlien on a trip to the Great 

 Miami, he records the paroquet but at the end of his note shows his 

 exaggerative skill. He says, ^ " During the repast I was enter- 

 tained by the chattering of a flock of paroquets, who had taken up 

 their abode in the trees around me. They were the green and the 

 red neck, that very particular species which are held the most 



1 Phelps, Capt. Matthew. Memoirs and Adventures of. By Anthony Haswell. 

 Bennington, Vt., 1802, p. .55 (Appendix). 



"■ Pike, Zebulon Montgomery, The Expeditions of. During the Years 1805-6-7. 

 New edit, by Elliot Coues. 3 vols. N. Y. 1895, Vol. II, p. 474. 



3 Wakefield, Priscilla. Excursions in North America, etc. London, 1806, 

 p. 95. 



^Heriot, George. Travels through the Canadas, etc. London, 1807, pp. 516, 

 517. 



5 Ashe, Thomas. Travels in America Performed in 1806, etc. London, 1808, 

 p. 224. 



