PSITTACID^ — THE PARROTS. 5^9 



inducement for their frequenting tlie banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi, 

 where these plants are found in the greatest abundance. The seeds of the 

 cypress-trees are another powerful attraction, while the abundance of the 

 mast of the beech, on which it feeds freely, may explain their occasional 

 visits to more northern regions, and even to places where they were before 

 unknown. 



In descending the Ohio in the month of February, "Wilson met the first 

 flock of Parakeets at the moutli of the Little Scioto. He was informed by 

 an old inhabitant of Marietta that they were sometimes, though rarely, seen 

 there. He afterwards observed flocks of them at the mouth of the Great 

 and Little Miami, and in the neighborliood of the numerous creeks whicli 

 discliarge themselves into the Oliio. At Big Bone Lick, near the mouth of 

 the Kentucky liiver, lie met them in great numbers. Tliey came screaming 

 through the woods, about an hour after sunrise, to drink the salt water, of 

 which, he says, they are remarkably fond. 



Audubon, writing in 1842, speaks of the Parakeets as then very rapidly 

 diminishing in number. In some regions where tw^enty-five years before 

 they had been very plentiful, at tliat time scarcely any were to be seen. At 

 one period, he adds, tliey could be procured as far up the tributary water of 

 the Ohio as the Great Kanawha, the Scioto, the head of the Miami, the 

 mouth of the Maumee at its junction with Lake Erie, and sometimes as far 

 northeast as Lake Ontario. At the time of his writing very few^ were to be 

 found higher than Cincinnati, and he estimated that along the Mississippi 

 there w^as not half the number that had existed there fifteen years before. 



According to Nuttall, this species constantly inhabits and breeds in the 

 Southern States, and is so hardy as to make its appearance commonly, in the 

 depth of winter, along the wooded banks of the Ohio, the interior of Ala- 

 bama, and the banks of the Mississippi and Missouri, around St. Louis, and 

 other places, when nearly all the other birds have migrated. 



Its present habitat seems to be the Southern and Southwestern States, as 

 far west as the Missouri. They occur high up that river, although none were 

 seen or collected much farther west than its banks. In the enumeration of 

 the localities from which the specimens in the Smithsonian collection were 

 derived, Florida, Cairo, 111., Fort Smith, Arkansas, Fort Eiley, Kansas, Ne- 

 braska, and Bald Island, Missouri River, and Michigan are given. 



In regard to the manner of nesting, breeding-habits, number of eggs in a 

 nest, and the localities in ^vhich it breeds, I know nothing from my own 

 personal observations, nor are writers generally better informed, with the 

 single exception of Mr. Audubon. Wilson states that all his informants 

 agreed that these birds breed in hollow^ trees. Several affirmed to him that 

 they had seen their nests. Some described these as made with the use of no 

 additional materials, others spoke of their employing certain substances to 

 line the hoUow^s they occupied. Some represented the eggs as white, others 

 as speckled. One man assured him that in the hollo w^ of a large beech- 



