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



rare in Europe, and which were once highly vahied by the Greeks 

 and Romans." 



In 1810 we have two references. Schultz at New Orleans writes 

 that ^ " Those (birds) which may be considered as local are, .... 

 paroquets, . . . . " These " Parroquets are so well known to you that 

 any description of them would be unnecessary. One good quality 

 they possess with which you are perhaps unacquainted: a dozen 

 of them make a most delicious sea-pie." The other note of this 

 year, comes when Cuming opposite Portsmouth (Ohio) on the 

 Virginia side,^ "observed here, vast numbers of beautiful large 

 green paroquets, which our landlord, squire Brown, informed us 

 abound all over the country. They keep in flocks, and when they 

 alight on a tree, they are not distinguishable from the foliage, 

 from their colour." 



The next decade furnishes at least eight different writers who 

 remark of the paroquet. The first, David Thomas, a botanist and 

 later engineer in the construction of the western division of the 

 Erie Canal gives it more attention than any other North American 

 bird. He writes of his first acquaintance with this form as follows : ^ 

 "As we approached the banks of Indian Kentucky, hearing shrill 

 screams over our heads, we looked up, and first saw the parroquet. 

 These birds, which are about the size of wild pigeons, are sometimes 

 seen on the Miami." In a footnote he gives, "Drake says on the 

 Sciota." When near Lost River and Lick Creek, Ohio, he says, 

 "The parroquet commits depredations on the wheat in harvest, 

 but it is a bird of uncommon beauty. The head is red, the neck 

 yellow, and the body a light green." At French Licks (sulphur 

 springs with salt in them) he finds, "This place is the favorite 

 residence of the parroquet, flocks of which were continually flying 

 round. These birds seem to delight in screaming." At Vincennes, 

 Ind., he remarks of their association with cottonwoods. "A small 

 cotton wood tree stands opposite to the window where I am writ- 

 ing, dark excrescences on its branches like those which appear on 



' Schultz, Cliristian. Travels on an Inland Voyage through the States of New 

 York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, etc. New York. 

 2 vols. 181o pp. 182, 184, 185. 



2 Cuming, F. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, through the States 

 of Ohio and Kentucky ; etc. Pittsburgh, 1810, p. 141. 



3 Thomas, David. Travels through the Western Coimtry in the Summer of 

 1816, etc. Auburn, N. Y. 1819, pp. 115, 1.3.3, 135, 160, 210, 307. 



