CAROLINA PARROT. 137 



The flight of the Parakeet is rapid, straight, and continued through 

 the forests, or over fields and rivers, and is accompanied by inclina- 

 tions of the body which enable the observer to see alternately their 

 upper and under parts. They deviate from a direct course only when 

 impediments occur, such as the trunks of trees or houses, in which 

 case they glance aside in a very graceful manner, merely as much as 

 may be necessary. A general cry is kept up by the party, and it is 

 seldom that one of these birds is on wing for ever so short a space 

 without uttering its cry. On reaching a spot which affords a supply 

 of food, instead of alighting at once, as many other birds do, the 

 Parakeets take a good survey of the neighbourhood, passing over it 

 in circles of great extent, first above the trees, and then gradually low- 

 ering until they almost touch the ground, when suddenly re-ascending 

 they all settle on the tree that bears the fruit of which they are in 

 quest, or on one close to the field in which they expect to regale them- 

 selves. ' 

 They are quite at ease on trees or any kind of plant, moving side- 

 wise, climbing or hanging in every imaginable posture, assisting them- 

 selves very dexterously in all their motions with their biUs. They usu- 

 ally alight extremely close together. I have seen branches of trees as 

 completely covered by them as they could possibly be. If approached 

 before they begin their plundering, they appear shy and distrustful, and 

 often at a single cry from one of them, the whole take wing, and proba- 

 bly may not return to the same place that day. Should a person shoot 

 at them, as they go, and wound an individual, its cries are sufficient to 

 bring back the whole flock, when the sportsman may kill as many as he 

 pleases. If the bird falls dead, they make a short round, and then fly 

 off. 



On the ground these birds walk slowly and awkwardly, as if their 

 tail incommoded them. They do not even attempt to run off when ap- 

 proached by the sportsman, should he come upon them unawares ; but 

 when he is seen at a distance, they lose no time in trying to hide, or in 

 scrambling up the trunk of the nearest tree, in doing which they are 

 greatly aided by their biU. 



Their roosting-place is in hollow trees, and the holes excavated 

 by the larger species of Woodpeckers, as far as these can be filled by 

 them. At dusk, a flock of Parakeets may be seen alighting against the 

 trunk of a large Sycamore or any other tree, when a considerable excava- 

 tion exists within it. Immediately below the entrance the birds all cling 



