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THE CAROLINA PARROT. 



PSITTACCUS CAUOLINENSIS, LiNN. 

 PLATE XXVI. Male, Female and Young. 



Doubtless, kind reader, you will say, while looking at the seven 

 figures of Parakeets represented in the plate, that I spared not my la- 

 bour. I never do, so anxious am I to promote your pleasure. 



These birds are represented feeding on the plant commonly named 

 the Cockle-hiir. Tt is fovmd much too plentifully in every State west of 

 the Alleghanies, and in still greater profusion as you advance towards 

 the Southern Districts. It grows in every field where the soil is good. 

 The low alluvial lands along the Ohio and Mississippi are all supplied 

 with it. Its growth is so measured that it ripens after the crops of grain 

 are usually secured, and in some rich old fields it grows so exceedingly 

 close, that to make one's way through the patches of it, at this late pe- 

 riod, is no pleasant task. The burs stick so thickly to the clothes, as to 

 prevent a person from walking with any kind of ease. The wool of 

 sheep is also much injured by them ; the tails and manes of horses are 

 converted into such tangled masses, that the hair has to be cut close off", 

 by which the natural beauty of these valuable animals is impaired. To 

 this day, no useful property has been discovered in the Cockle-bur, al- 

 though in time it may prove as valuable either in medicine or chemistry as 

 many other plants that had long been considered of no importance. 



Well, reader, you have before you one of these plants, on the seeds 

 of wliich the parrot feeds. It alights upon it, plucks the bur from the 

 stem with its bill, takes it from the latter with one foot, in which it turns 

 it over until the joint is properly placed to meet the attacks of the bill, 

 when it bursts it open, takes out the fruit, and allows the shell to drop. 

 In this manner, a flock of these birds, having discovered a field ever so 

 well filled with these plants, will eat or pluck off all their seeds, return- 

 ing to the place day after day until hardly any are left. The plant 

 might thus be extirpated, but it so happens that it is reproduced from 

 the ground, being perennial, and our farmers have too much to do in se- 

 curing their crops, to attend to the pulling up the cockle-burs by the 

 roots, the only effectual way of getting rid of them. 



