CAROLINA PARROT. 157 



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 cir- 

 cuitous, making a great variety of elegant and easy serpentine 

 meanders, as if for pleasure. They are particularly attached to 

 the large sycamores, in the hollow of the trunks, and branches 

 of which, they generally roost, thirty or forty, and sometimes 

 more, entering at the same hole. Here they cling close to the 

 sides of the tree, holding fast by the claws, and also by the 

 bills. They appear to be fond of sleep, and often retire to their 

 holes during the day, probably to take their regular siesta. 

 They are extremely sociable with and fond of each other, often 

 scratching each other's heads and necks, and always at night 

 nestling as close as possible to each other, preferring, at that 

 time, a perpendicular position, supported by their bill and claws. 

 In the Fall, when their favourite cockle-burrs are ripe, they 

 swarm along the coast, or high grounds of the Mississippi, 

 above New Orleans, for a great extent. At such times they 

 are killed and eaten by many of the inhabitants; though I con- 

 fess I think their flesh very indifferent I have several times 

 dined on it from necessity in the woods; but found it merely 

 passable, with all the sauce of a keen appetite to recommend 

 it.* 



A very general opinion prevails, that the brains and intes- 

 tines of the Carolina Paroquet are a sure and fatal poison to 

 cats. I had determined, when at Big-Bone, to put this to the 

 test of experiment; and for that purpose collected the brains and 

 bowels of more than a dozen of them. But after close search 

 Mrs. Puss was not to be found, being engaged perhaps oh more 

 agreeable business. I left the medicine with Mr. Colquhoun's 



* Had our author been provided with proper apparatus to cook these birds, 

 and suitable condiments, he would, doubtless, have been of a different opinion. 

 Mr. T. Peale and myself, when in East Florida, where this species is found 

 in great numbers, thought them excellent eating. In Florida the Paroquets 

 are migratory. We saw the first flock of them, at the Cowford, on the river 

 St. John, on the first of March: the greater part of them were males. G. Ord. 



