CAROLINA ARARA. 103 



numbers killed by one discharge, as the whole flock 

 alight and feed close to each other. The work of 

 destruction, moreover, is not confined to a single 

 shot; for we are told, that " the survivors rise, 

 shriek, fly round for a few minutes, and again alight 

 on the very place of most imminent danger. The 

 gun is kept at work ; eight, ten, or even twenty are 

 killed at every discharge, the living birds, as if con- 

 scious of the death of their companions, sweep over 

 their bodies, screaming as loud as ever, but still re- 

 turn to the stack to be shot at, until so few remain 

 alive, that the farmer does not consider it worth his 

 while to spend more of his ammunition." Injurious, 

 however, as they no doubt frequently are to the 

 cultivator, their principal food is said to be the 

 Cockle-burr, the seed of the Zanthium strumarium, 

 a plant that abounds throughout the rich alluvial 

 lands of the States west of the Alleghany Moun- 

 tains : it is a weed noxious to the husbandman on 

 many accounts, and the consumption of its seed by 

 the Parrots must therefore be of some advantage, 

 though that is unfortunately for them greatly dimi- 

 nished, from the circumstance of its possessing a 

 perennial root. 



Like the rest of the group to which it belongs, 

 the Carolina Arara appears incapable of learning to 

 articulate words, though, when captured, it soon be- 

 comes tame, and will eat almost immediately after- 

 wards. Wilson gives a long and interesting account 

 of an individual that he had wounded slightly in the 



