THE CAROLINA PAEOQUET. 5 



"Every such fork would be occupied, and lie lias seen as many as forty 

 or fifty nests in one small tree. Their nests closely resembled those of the 

 Carolina Dove, being similarly composed of cypress twigs put together so loosely 

 that the eggs were often visible from the ground beneath. The twigs of the 

 cypress seemed to be preferred to those of any other kind of tree. The height 

 at which the nests were placed varied from 5 or 6 feet to 20 or 30 feet. Mr. 

 Long described the eggs as being of a greenish-white color, unspotted. He did 

 not remember the maximum number which he had found in one set, but thought 

 it was at least four or five. He had often taken young birds from the nests to 

 rear or to give to his friends. He knew of a small colony of Parrakeets breed- 

 ing in Waukulla Swamp, about 20 miles from Tallahassee, in the summer of 

 "1885, and believes that they still occur there in moderate numbers. 



"It seems difficult to reconcile such testimony with the statements of Audu- 

 bon, Wilson, and others that the Carolina Parrakeet lays its eggs in hollow trees. 

 It may be, however, that, like the Crow Blackbird, and some of the Owls, this 

 Parrot nests both in holes and on branches, according to circumstances ; at all 

 events the above account has seemed to me to rest on evidence sufficiently good 

 to warrant its publication." 



It is quite possible that the Carolina Paroquet, from its exceedingly social 

 nature, was compelled where very numerous to resort to open nesting sites from 

 necessity, as suitable cavities are rarely found in sufficient quantities close to each 

 other to accommodate any considerable number of pairs. We find this to be the 

 case with Bolborhynchus monaclms Boddart, the Green Paroquet of Paraguay, 

 Uruguay, and the Argentine Republic, which suspends its nests from the extremi- 

 ties of branches, to which they are firmly woven. Mr. Gibson describes their 

 nests as follows: "New nests consist of only two chambers, the porch and the 

 nest proper, and are inhabited by a single pair of birds. Successive nests are 

 added until some of them come to weigh a quarter of a ton, and contain material 

 enough to fill a large cart. Thorny twigs firmly interwoven form the only mate- 

 rial, and there is no lining in the breeding chamber even in the breeding season. 

 Some old forest trees have seven or eight of these huge structures suspended 

 from the branches, while the ground underneath is covered with twigs and 

 remains of fallen rocks." ' 



Another species the Patagonian Parrot, Conurus patagonus (Vieillot), found 

 in the Argentine Republic, and in Patagonia, excavates its nest in perpendicular 

 banks, like our Kingfisher; while the Ground Parrakeet, Pcsoporus formosus 

 Latham), of Australia nests in tall grass. 



Although nearly all the species of this numerous family nest in hollow trees, 

 as stated above, there are exceptions to this rule, and it is quite probable that 

 some of our Carolina Paroquets nested at times in Florida as Judge R. L. Long 

 described, and again both in communities in large hollow trees and singly, as 

 Alexander Wilson states, all of these different assertions being probably correct. 

 We have no positive information about the number of eggs laid by this 

 species in a wild state. 



1 Argentine Ornithology. Vol. II, 1889, pp. 43-46. 



