

CAROLINA PARROT. 159 



and neck, of both sexes, during the two former of these months, 

 convinces me, that the young birds do not receive their full 

 colours until the early part of the succeeding summer. 



While Parrots and Paroquets, from foreign countries, abound 

 in almost every street of our large cities, and become such great 

 favourites, no attention seems to have been paid to our own, 

 which in elegance of figure, and beauty of plumage, is certainly 

 superior to many of them. It wants, indeed, that disposition 

 for perpetual screaming and chattering, that renders some of the 

 former, pests, not only to their keepers, but to the whole neigh- 

 bourhood in which they reside. It is alike docile and sociable; 

 soon becomes perfectly familiar; and until equal pains be taken 

 in its instruction, it is unfair to conclude it incapable of equal 

 improvement in the language of man. 



As so little has hitherto been known of the disposition and 

 manners of this species, the reader will not, I hope, be displeased 

 at my detailing some of these, in the history of a particular fa- 

 vourite, my sole companion in many a lonesome day's march, 

 and of which the figure in the plate is a faithful resemblance. 



Anxious to try the effects of education on one of those which 

 I procured at Big-Bone lick, and which was but slightly wound- 

 ed in the wing, I fixed up a place for it in the stern of my boat, 

 and presented it with some cockle-burrs, which it freely fed on 

 in less than an hour after being on board. The intermediate 

 time, between eating and sleeping, was occupied in gnawing the 

 sticks that formed its place of confinement, in order to make a 

 practicable breach, which it repeatedly effected. When I aban- 

 doned the river, and travelled by land, I wrapt it up closely in 

 a silk handkerchief, tying it tightly around, and carried it in 

 my pocket. When I stopped for refreshment, I unbound my 

 prisoner, and gave it its allowance, which it generally despatched 

 with great dexterity, unhusking the seeds from the burr in a 

 twinkling; in doing which it always employed its left foot to 

 hold the burr, as did several others that I kept for some time. 

 I began to think that this might be peculiar to the whole tribe, 

 and that the whole were, if I may use the expression, left-footed; 



