A TAME CAROLINA PARROT. 387 



which had lived on cockle-burs might be injurious to the cat, although that which had eaten the 

 comparatively hannless diet might do no injury. The nest of this bird is made in hollow trees. 

 One of these Parrots was tamed by Wilson, who gave the following animated description 

 of his favorite and her actions : — 



" Anxious to try the effects of education on one of those which I procured at the Big Bone 

 Lick, and which was but slightly wounded in the ^ving, I fixed up a place for it in the stern 

 of my boat, and presented it with some cockle-burs, which it freely fed on, in less than an hour 

 after it had been 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 abandoned the river and travelled by land, I wrapped 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 bur in a twinkling ; in doing which it 

 always employed its left foot to hold the bur, 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 they all were, if 

 I may use the expression, left-footed ; but by shooting a number afterwards while engaged in 

 eating mulberries, I found sometimes the left and sometimes the right foot stained with 

 the fruit, the other always clean ; from which, and the constant practice of those I kept, 

 it appears that, like the human species in the use of their hands, they do not prefer one or the 

 other indiscriminately, but are either left or right-footed. 



" But to return to my prisoner. In recommitting it to 'durance vile' we generally had a 

 quarrel, during which it frequently paid me in kind for the wound I had inflicted and for 

 depriving it of liberty, by cutting and almost disabling several of my fingers with its sharp and 

 powerful bill. 



"The path between Nashville and Natchez is in some places bad beyond description. 

 There are dangerous creeks to swim, miles of morass to struggle through, rendered almost as 

 gloomy as night by a prodigious growth of timber, and an underwood of canes, and other ever- 

 greens, while the descent into these sluggish streams is often ten or fifteen feet perpendicular 

 into a bed of deep clay. In some of the worst of these places, where I had, as it were, to fight 

 my way throitgh, the Paroquet frequently escaped from my pocket, obliging me to dismount 

 and pursue it through the worst of the morass before I could regain it. On these occasions I 

 was several times tempted to abandon it, but I persisted in bringing it along. When 

 at night I encamped in the woods, I placed it on the baggage beside me, where it usually sat 

 with great composure, dozing and gazing at the fire till morning. In this manner I carried it 

 upwards of a thousand miles in my pocket, where it was exposed aU day to the jolting of the 

 horse, but regularly liberated at meal times and ia the evening, at which it always expressed 

 gi'eat satisfaction. 



" In passing through the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, the Indians, whenever I stopped 

 to feed, collected around me— men, women, and children— laughing, and seemingly wonderfully 

 amused with the novelty of my companion. The Chickasaws called it in their language 

 ' Kelinky,' but when they heard me call it Poll, they soon repeated the name ; and whenever 

 I chanced to stop amongst these people, we soon become familiar with each other through the 

 medium of Poll. 



" On arriving at Mr. Dunbar's, below Natchez, I procured a cage, and placed it under the 

 piazza, where, by its call, it soon attracted the passing flocks, such is the attachment they have 

 for each other. ' Numerous parties frequently alighted on the trees immediately above, keep- 

 ing up a constant conversation with the prisoner. One of these I wounded slightly in the wing, 

 and the pleasure PoU expressed on meeting with this new companion was really amusing. 

 She crept close up to it, as it hung on the side of the cage, chattering to it in a low tone 

 of voice as if sympathizing in its misfortune, scratched about its head and neck with her bill, 

 and both at night nestled as close as possible to each other, sometimes Poll's head being 

 tJirust among the plumage of the other. 



