820 REPOKT OP STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Less than a century ago they reached north into Michigan, thence 

 east to Albany, N. Y., and west into Colorado. In 1806 they reached 

 the mouth of the Manimee (Maumee) in Ohio (Audubon) and prob- 

 ably the northern line of this State. R. Kennicott took specimens in 

 the vicinity of Chicago, and Dr. H. M. Bannister saw it there (Nel- 

 son). They were seen at Madisonville, near Cincinnati, 0., as late as 

 1840 (Langdon). Audubon says, in 1842, few were to be found higher 

 than Cincinnati. 



In the Whitewater Valley, in 1835, they were last reported from 

 Brookville, Ind. They were common in Switzerland County in 1838-9 

 and were last noted in Clarke County in 1844. From the other coun- 

 ties named the last record I have been able to obtain is as follows: 

 Vermillion, 1844; Parke, 1842; Marion, 1835; Monroe, 1836; Morgan, 

 1838-40; Owen, 1845; Greene, 1849; Martin, 1845; Knox and Daviess, 

 1857-8; Posey, 1858; and the latest date is Knox County, 1859. 



Thus it will be seen they disappeared from all of Ohio and Indiana, 

 except the lower Wabash Valley, by about 1840. Their range con- 

 tinued to diminish; it is still growing less. There are persons now 

 living from 80 to 90 years of age in this State who can remember when 

 they were to be found in great numbers over more than one-half of 

 the southern part of Indiana. It will not be surprising if they should 

 live to hear that the Paroquets are extinct. 



They preferred the valleys of streams and the vicinity of ponds. 

 There they were found in flocks ranging from six to a hundred or 

 more. In such places -grew, in quantities, their favorite food, the 

 "cockle-burr" or "cuckle-burr" (Xanthium canadense Mull.). For 

 these it is said they would leave any other food. Sometimes they 

 would gather numbers of them upon a stump and shell out the 

 kernel, leaving instead a pile of empty burrs. Wherever they were 

 found, the universal testimony is, they preferably ate this food. 

 Next to cockle-burrs they preferred hackberries. 



In spring they were very destructive in orchards, eating the leaf- 

 buds, blossoms and young fruit. Early apples were often eaten. In 

 fall they fed upon apples, grapes and grain. They also ate cherries, 

 persimmons, black-gum berries, haws, beechnuts, acorns, and pecans. 

 One authority says they split open the apples and ate the seeds, dis- 

 carding the remainder of the fruit. Sometimes, when in large flocks, 

 they seemed bent upon mischief. Then they destroyed an entire crop 

 of fruit. After eating what they wanted they would tear the apples 

 off the tree, and, after taking a bite, throw them to the ground. They 

 also tore off the heads of wheat and threw them upon the ground. 



