68 MORE ABOUT THE PARROT. 



melancholy, and without any of the sprightliness 

 of his race. But the Indian can sell him for a 

 good sum of money, since the transformed birds 

 are very rare, and much sought after. 



There is but one species of Parrot a native 

 of the United States. It is called the Carolina 

 Parrot, and feeds upon a plant called the cockle- 

 bur. The cockle-bur is as abundant as the 

 Parrots. It grows in the fields, along the banks 

 of the great American rivers, and ripens after 

 the harvest has been gathered in. It grows 

 so thickly, and the burs stick so fast together, 

 that a man can scarcely force his way through 

 them. The burs stick to his clothes, and are very 

 difficult to rub off. And if the man is on horse- 

 back, they will cling to the horse's tail, and make 

 it a tangled mass, so that it has to be cut off. 

 The poor sheep that chances to stray into one of 

 these fields is in a sorry plight ; the wool is 

 literally torn from its back. And the worst of 

 the matter is, that the cockle -bur does no good 

 to outweigh all this mischief. It possesses no 

 valuable property either as food or as medicine. 



