138 CAROLINA PARROT. 



to the bark, and crawl into the hole to pass the night. When such a hole 

 does not prove sufficient to hold the whole flock, those around the en- 

 trance hook themselves on by their claws, and the tip of the upper man- 

 dible, and look as if hanging by the bill. I have frequently seen them 

 in such positions by means of a glass, and am satisfied that the bill is 

 not the only support used in such cases. 



When wounded and laid hold of, the Parakeet opens its bill, turns 

 its head to seize and bite, and, if it succeed, is capable of inflicting 

 a severe wound. It is easily tamed by being frequently immersed in 

 water, and eats as soon as it is placed in confinement. Nature seems to 

 have implanted in these birds a propensity to destroy, in consequence of 

 which they cut to atoms pieces of wood, books, and, in short, every thing 

 that comes in their way. They are incapable of articulating words, how- 

 ever much care and attention may be bestowed upon their education ; 

 and their screams are so disagreeable as to render them at best very in- 

 different companions. The woods are the habitation best fitted for them, 

 and there the richness of their plumage, their beautiful mode of flight, 

 and even their screams, afford welcome intimation that our darkest forests 

 and most sequestered swamps are not destitute of charms. 



They are fond of sand in a surprising degree, and on that account 

 are freqviently seen to alight in flocks along the gravelly banks about the 

 creeks and rivers, or in the ravines of old fields in the plantations, when 

 they scratch with bill and claws, flvitter and roll themselves in the sand, 

 and pick up and swallow a certain quantity of it. For the same pur- 

 pose, they also enter the holes dug by our Kingsfisher. They are fond 

 of saline earth, for which they visit the different Licks interspersed in 

 our woods. 



Our Parakeets are very rapidly diminishing in number ; and in some 

 districts, where twenty-five years ago they were plentiful, scarcely any 

 are now to be seen. At that period, they could be procured as far up 

 the tributary waters of the Ohio as the Great Kenhawa, the Scioto, the 

 heads of the Miami, the mouth of the Manimee at its junction with Lake 

 Erie, on the Illinois River, and sometimes as far north-east as Lake 

 Ontario, and along the eastern districts as far as the boundary line be- 

 tween Virginia and Maryland. At the present day, very few are to be 

 found higher than Cincinnati, nor is it until you reach the mouth of 

 the Ohio that Parakeets are met with in considei-able numbers. I should 

 think that along the Mississippi there is not now half the number that 

 existed fifteen years ago. 



