NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 251 



civilization, indeed in regions which are practically uninhabitable. In what num- 

 bers they still exist is impossible for us to say." Mr. William Brewster in "The 

 Auk" (Vol. VI, pp. 336, 337), has probably thrown more light on the nesting habits of 

 this species than any other writer. While in Florida during February and March, 

 1888, he questioned everybody whom he met regarding the nesting of the Paroquet. 

 Two professional hunters of alligators and plume birds, both uneducated men, stated 

 that they had seen Paroquets' nests which they described as flimsy structures placed 

 in the branches of cypress trees. This was so widely in variance with the state- 



382. CAROLINA PAROQUET ^From Wilson 



ments of Wilson, Audubon and others, that the Carolina Paroquet lays its eggs in 

 hollow trees that the statement at the time was taken as a mere fabrication until 

 it was strongly corroborated by Judge R. L. Long, of Tallahassee, a gentleman with 

 a very good general knowledge of birds. He stated that formerly they nested 

 abundantly in large colonies in the cypress swamps. Several of these colonies con- 

 tained a thousand birds each, and they invariably selected a fork near the end of a 

 slender horizontal branch for the position of the nest. Every such fork would be 

 occupied, and he has seen as many as forty or fifty nests in one small tree. They 

 closely resembled those of the Carolina Dove; the eggs were often visible from be- 

 neath. Mr. Long describes the eggs as being of a greenish-white color, unspotted. 

 He thought the number laid was at least four or five. He had often taken young 

 birds from the nest to rear or to give to his friends. He knew of a small colony of 

 Paroquets breeding in Waukulla Swamp, about 20 miles from Tallahassee, in the 

 summer of 1895, and believed they still occur there in moderate numbers. There 

 appears to be no positive information concerning the actual number of eggs laid by 

 the Carolina Paroquet in its wild state. Dr. Karl Russ, of Berlin, Germany, men- 

 tions several instances of this bird breeding in capivity in Germany, where the eggs 

 were deposited in June and July, the number being from three to five, pure white, 

 fine grained, very round and quHe glossy, like woodpeckers' eggs, and measuring 

 abotit 1.50x1.42 inches. Mr. Robert Ridgway's Paroquets which he had in captivitT 



