360 Wright, Early Records of the Carolina Paroquet. [jxily 



the most conspicuous, on account of the beauty of their plumes." 

 About the same time, Shirreff at Springfield, 111., finds, ^ "The 

 forests abounded with green coloured paroquets, which fluttered 

 about with a disagreeable noise, in flocks of six or seven." In a 

 "Narrative of a Journey across Rocky Mountains to Columbia 

 River," John K. Townsend at Boonville, Mo., April 8, 1834, says,^ 

 " We saw here vast numbers of the beautiful parrot of this country 

 (the Psittacus carolinensis). They flew around us in flocks, keep- 

 ing a constant and loud screaming, as though they would chide 

 us for invading their territory; and the splendid green and red 

 of their plumage glancing in the sunshine, as they whirled and 

 circled within a few feet of us, had a most magnificent appearance. 

 They seem entirely unsuspicious of danger, and after being fired 

 at, only huddle closer together, as if to obtain protection from each 

 other, and as their companions are falling around them, they curve 

 down their necks, and look at them fluttering upon the ground, 

 as though perfectly at a loss to account for so unusual an occur- 

 rence. It is a most inglorious sort of shooting; down right, cold- 

 blooded murder." At Independence, Mo., he finds, "Parroquets 

 are plentiful in the bottom lands, . . . . " 



Near Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Murray writes,^ " I rambled 

 about the woods near our halting-place, with my fowling-piece in 

 my hand, . . . . , but found nothing feathered upon which to exercise 

 my skill except a small flock of green Perroquets' (I believe, the 

 species called Psittacus rufirostris.) I killed half a dozen, and we 

 cooked them for supper; they were fat, and by no means unpalata- 

 ble. I retained some of the more gay and brilliant feathers as 

 presents for the Indians." At Hennepin, 111., 1835, Hoffmann * 

 sat down upon a fallen tree among the tangled vines of the rich 

 bottom opposite to Hennepin, and watched a flock of green paro- 

 quets fluttering among the wych-elms which here and there skirted 

 the shore,. ..." In Texas, Edward records ^ "a few flocks of the 



• Shirreff, Patrick. A Toiir through North America; etc. Edinburgh, 183.5, 

 p. 246. 



2 Townsend, John K., Phila., Pa., 1839, pp. 20, 21, 24. 



' Miu-ray, Hon. C A. Travels in North America during the Years 1834, 1835 

 and 1836. 2 vols. N. Y. 1839. Vol. I, p. 184. 



< Hoffmann, C. F. A Winter in the West by a New Yorker. 2 vols., N. Y., 

 1835. Vol. I, p. 282. 



' Edward, D. B. The History of Texas; etc. Cincinnati, 1836, p. 75. 



