494 



of 



ing ones green with yellow tips : the bill 

 pale, and the legs and feet dusky. 



The AMAZON PARROT. (Psittacus Ama- 

 sonius.) There are several varieties found 

 on each side of a great extent of the river 

 Amazon to whom the general appellation 

 of Amazonian Parrots is given. Their usual 

 length is about fourteen inches ; the bills 

 varying in colour : the irides yellow or 

 orange ; and the plumage bright green, with 

 the feathers marked by dusky or blackish 

 margins : the tops or edges of the shoulders, 

 and a conspicuous patch on the middle of 

 the wings, bright red ; the red wing patch is 

 usually bounded by shades of blue, green, 

 and yellow, which colours are only com- 

 pletely visible in the expanded state of the 

 wings: the tail-feathers are green, but appear 

 red beneath the base when expanded. A 

 bright blue band generally readies from eye 

 to eye, beyond which the feathers of the 

 crown, cheeks, and throat are of a jonquil 

 yellow : the legs and feet are either dusky 

 or of a pale grayish brown. The species we 

 have selected for description corresponds in 

 its main features with what we have above 

 stated ; and, that the general colour of the 

 plumage is a bright and beautiful green, 

 deepest on the back and wings, and lighter 

 beneath, a yellowish garter encircling the 

 bottom of the thighs. The smallest of the 

 wing- coverts, forming the ridge of the shoul- 

 ders, are of a splendid red colour ; the larger 

 wing-feathers are externally of a deep blue 

 with a cast of violet ; the middle ones of the 

 same colour at their tips, but red on their 

 outward edges. The tail is deep green above, 

 and yellowish beneath, and has some red on 

 the upper part of each feather, which, how- 

 ever, is not seen when the tail is closed : the 

 bill is dark brown, and the legs light gray. 

 The Amazon Parrot abounds in Guiana and 

 Surinam, where it causes great injury to the 

 plantations. It builds in the midst of im- 

 penetrable forests, the female laying four 

 white eggs in the hollow of a tree. 



CAROLINA PARROT. (Psittacus Cardli- 

 nensis.) The only species found native in 

 the United States is the Carolina or Illinois 

 Parrot, which is resident from the Gulf of 

 Mexico to the neighbourhood of Lake Mi- 

 chigan, and on the east of the Alleghanies 

 to Maryland. Their favourite food is the 

 seeds of the cockle-bur, which grows in great 

 abundance along the shores of the Mississippi 

 and the Ohio ; where they are seen in large 

 flocks, screaming round the salt-licks. They 

 are very sociable in their dispositions, ex- 

 tremely fond of each other, and showing the 

 greatest grief for the loss of their companions. 

 The plumage is very beautiful, the general 

 colour being a bright yellowish silky green, 

 with light blue reflections. 



Wilson's American Ornithology furnishes 

 us with the following particulars of this 

 bird : " In descending the river Ohio, by 

 myself, in the month of February, I met 

 with the first flock of paroquets, at the 

 mouth of the Little Sioto. I had been in- 

 formed, by an old and respectable inhabitant 

 of Marietta, that they were sometimes, 

 though rarely, seen there. I observed flocks 



of them, afterwards, at the mouth of the 

 Great and Little Miami, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of numerous creeks that discharge 

 themselves into the Ohio. At Big Bone lick, 

 thirty miles above the moutb of Kentucky 

 river, I saw them in great numbers. They 



CAROLINA PARROT. 



came screaming through the woods in the 

 morning, about an hour after sunrise, to 

 drink the salt water, of which they, as well 

 as the pigeons, are remarkably fond. When 

 they alighted on the ground, it appeared at 

 a distance as if covered with a carpet of the 

 richest green, orange, and yellow: they after- 

 wards settled, in one body, on a neighbouring 

 tree, which stood detached from any other, 

 covering almost every twig of it, and the sun, 

 shining strongly on their gay and glossy 

 plumage, produced a very beautiful and 

 splendid appearance. Here I had an oppor- 

 tunity of observing some very particular 

 traits of their character : having shot down 

 a number, some of which were only wounded, 

 the whole flock swept repeatedly around 

 their prostrate companions, and again settled 

 on a low tree, within twenty yards of the 

 spot where I stood. At each successive dis- 

 charge, though showers of them fell, yet 

 the affection of the survivors seemed rather 

 to increase ; for, after a few circuits around 

 the place, they again alighted near me, 

 looking down on their slaughtered com- 

 panions with such manifest symptoms of 

 sympathy and concern, as entirely disarmed 

 me. I could not but take notice of the re 

 markable contrast between their elegant 

 manner of flight, and their lame crawling 

 gait among the branches. They fly very 

 much like the wild pigeon, in close compact 

 bodies, and with great rapidity, making a 

 loud and outrageous screaming, not unlike 

 that of the red-headed woodpecker. Their 

 flight is sometimes in a direct line ; but most 

 usually circuitous, making a great variety 

 of elegant and easy serpentine meanders, as 

 if for pleasure. They are particularly at- 

 tached to the large sycamores, in the hollow 

 of the trunks and branches of which they 

 generally roost, thirty or forty, and some- 

 times more, entering at the same hole. Here 



