oo4 Wright, Early Records of the Carolina Paroquet. [jiily 



But it is a well ascertained fact, that the climate of these latitudes 

 is much colder than that of places in the Atlantic states, where 

 this bird is rarely seen. There must be causes, therefore, for its 

 higher latitude in this country, that are not connected with climate. 

 One of these, Professor Barton suggests, is the southern course 

 of our great rivers. If this bird, as most of its family still are, was 

 originally an inhabitant of the tropics, it must have migrated into 

 the depths of this region, along the Mississippi and Ohio. The 

 wide alluvial vallies of these rivers, it is observed by the late in- 

 genious and lamented Alexander Wilson, abound in the favorite 

 food of this bird; such as the fruit of the cockle burr {xcmthium 

 strumarium L), cypress, hackberry, beech and sycamore, most of 

 which are rare or unproductive in Pennsylvania. To these, the 

 same distinguished Ornithologist remarks, may be added the 

 salines or salt licks of this country, about which he never failed to 

 see flocks of parakeets. Finding a region abundantly stored with 

 agreeable food, this bird long since became its permanent inhabi- 

 tant; and acquired hardiness of constitution sufficient to enjoy 

 good health, where the average heat of some months in winter is 

 seven degrees below the freezing point. In the Atlantic states, 

 the rivers flow east or south-east. In advancing towards Pennsyl- 

 vania, therefore, this bird cannot travel along, but must cross their 

 vallies ; a movement which it has no inducement to make, and hence 

 it generally stops among the cypress swamps of North Carolina 

 and southern Virginia." 



In the Illinois country in 1817, Samuel R. Brown finds ^ "paro- 

 quets. . . abound in the same numbers as in other parts of the 

 western country." He records it in Louisiana and speaks of the 

 Mississippi as the place where "The traveller finds himself in the 

 proper region of the paroquets ..." When on Patoka river, 

 Indiana, Elias Pym Fordham, Dec. 8, 1817 complainingly writes 

 that ^ " He saw a large herd of deer, but killed nothing but a parro- 

 quet." The next year, in Tennessee along the Mississippi, Estwick 

 Evans ^ sees the paroquet. It " is smaller, and more beautiful 



1 Brown, S. R. The Western Gazetteer. Auburn, 1817, pp. 31, 146, 233. 



2 Fordham, E. P. Personal Narrative of, etc 1817-1818. Edited by F. A. Ogg. 

 Cleveland, O., 1906, p. 138. 



3 Evans, Estwick. A Pedestrioiis Tour, of Four Thousand Miles through 

 the Western States and Territories during the Winter and Spring of 1818, etc. 

 Concord, N. H., 1819, p. 200. 



