104 CAROLINA ARARA. 



wing, (luring one of his excursions, and which he 

 carried for a great distance in his pocket. It soon 

 became familiarized to confinement, learnt to know 

 its name, to come when called on, to sit on his 

 shoulder, climb up his clothes, eat from his mouth, 

 &c. On account of its inability to articulate, and 

 its loud disagreeable screams, it is seldom kept 

 caged in America; and, as Audubon observes, "the 

 woods are best fitted for them, and there the rich- 

 ness of their plumage, their beautiful mode of flight, 

 and even their screams, afford welcome intimation 

 that our darkest forests and most sequestered swamps 

 are not destitute of charms." According to this 

 author, their nest, or rather the place where they 

 deposit their eggs, is the bottom of the cavities of 

 decayed trees. " Many females," he observes, " de- 

 posit their eggs together," and the number laid by 

 each individual, he believes is two a number which 

 seems to prevail throughout the great body of the 

 family. The eggs are round, and of a light green- 

 ish white ; and the young, when excluded, and be- 

 fore they acquire their feathers, are covered with a 

 soft down. The plumage of the first few months is 

 green, but towards autumn they acquire a frontlet 

 of carmine. Upon the ground they are slow and 

 awkward, walking as if incommoded by their tail. 

 When wounded, and attempted to be laid hold of, 

 they turn to bite with open bill, and, if successful, 

 inflict a very severe wound. They are said to de- 

 light in sand or gravelly banks, where they may fre- 



