CAROLINA PARROT. 139 



Their flesh is tolerable food, when they are young, on which accoinit 

 many of them are shot. The skin of their body is usually much covered 

 with the mealy substances detached from the roots of the feathers. The 

 head especially is infested by numerous minute insects, all of which shift 

 from the skin to the surface of the plumage, immediately after the bird's 

 death. Their nest, or the place in which they deposit their eggs, is simply 

 the bottom of such ca\'ities in trees as those to which they usually retire 

 at night. Many females deposit their eggs together. I am of opinion 

 that the number of eggs which each individual lays is two, although I 

 have not been able absolutely to assure myself of this. They are nearly 

 round, and of a light greenish white. The young are at first covered 

 with soft down, such as is seen on young Owls. During the first season, 

 the whole plumage is green ; but towards autumn a frontlet of carmine 

 appears. Two years, however, are passed before the male or female are 

 in full plumage. The only material differences which the sexes present 

 externally are, that the male is rather larger, with more brilliant plum- 

 age. I have represented a female with two supernumerary feathers in 

 the tail. This, however, is merely an accidental variety. 



PsiTTACus CAROLiMEMSis, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 141. — Lath. Ind. Orn. vol. i. 



p. 93 Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 41. 



Carolina Parrot, Lath. Synops. vol. i. p. 227 — Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 89. 



PL 86. fig. 1. 



Adult Male. Plate XXVI. Fig. 1, 1, 1. 



Bill short, bulging, very strong and hard, deeper than broad, convex 

 above and below, with a cere at the base ; upper mandible curved from 

 the base, convex on the sides, the margin overlapping, with an angular 

 process, the tip trigonal, acute, declinate, much exceeding the under man- 

 dible, which is very short, broadly convex on the back, truncate at the 

 extremity. Nostrils basal, round, open, placed in the cere. Head very 

 large. Neck robust. Body rather elongated. Feet short and robust ; 

 tarsus scaly all round ; toes scutellate above, flat beneath, two behind 

 and two before, the latter united at the base ; claws curved, acute. 



Plumage compact and imbricated on the back, blended on the head, 

 neck, and under parts. Orbital space bare. Wings long, second and 

 third quills longest. Tail long, wedge-shaped, of twelve, narrow, taper- 

 ing feathers. 



