234 lawson's history 



The parrakeetos are of a green color, and or- 

 ange colored half way their head. Of these and 

 the alligators, there is none found to the north- 

 ward of this province. They visit us first when 

 mulherries are ripe, which fruit they love extreme- 

 ly. They peck the apples to eat the kernels, so 

 that the fruit rots and perishes. They are mis- 

 chievous to orchards. They are often taken alive 

 and will become familiar and tame in two days. 

 They have their nests in hollow trees, in low 

 swampy ground. They devour the birch buds in 

 April, and lie hidden when the weather is frosty 

 and hard. 



The thrushes in America are the same as in 

 England, and red under the wings. They never 

 appear amongst us but in hard weather, and pres- 

 ently leave us again. 



Of woodpeckers we have four sorts. The first 

 is as big as a pigeon, being of a dark brown col- 

 or, with a white cross on his back, his eyes cir- 

 cled with white, and on his head stands a tuft of 

 beautiful scarlet feathers. His cry is heard a 

 long way, and he files from one rotten tree to 

 another to get grubs, which is the food he lives 

 on. 



The second sort are of an olive color, striped 

 with yellow. They eat worms as well as grubs, 

 and are about the bigness of those in Europe. 



The third is the same bigness as the last — he is 

 pied with black and white, has a crimson head, 

 without a topping, and is a plague to the corn and 



