PARROTS, KINGFISHERS, AND FLYCATCHERS 



809 



According to available accounts, this 

 parakeet in earlier years ranged in noisy 

 flocks wherever food was plentiful. Nor- 

 mally the birds fed on seeds of cypress, 

 pine, and thistle, and also on cockleburs 

 and sandburs whose rough hulls were 

 shelled easily by strong bills. At night the 

 flocks gathered in hollow trees where they 

 clung suspended by feet and bills. 



The parakeet was hunted for food and 

 sport at an early day. Indians used its 

 plumes for ornament, and early white set- 

 tlers found its flesh good to eat. 



With the planting of grain and orchards 

 the birds became destructive to crops, and 

 thousands were killed by farmers. Para- 

 keets were said to be especially bad in 

 apple orchards, as they cut up the fruit to 

 get the seeds, sometimes stripping the trees 

 completely. In Florida hundreds were 

 trapped to become cage birds and thou- 

 sands more were killed. Under these cir- 

 cumstances the birds rapidly decreased. 



The Carolina parakeet nested in hollow 

 trees, where it deposited pure-white eggs 

 on whatever rubbish was accumulated in 

 the cavity. Somewhat uncertain reports 

 indicate that from three to five eggs con- 

 stituted a set. It has been recorded on 

 hearsay that the birds made nests on the 

 horizontal limbs of cypress trees, but this 

 statement seems to be erroneous. 



The Carolina parakeet proper (Conu- 

 r ops is carolincnsis carolincnsis) formerly 

 ranged from Florida and Alabama north to 

 Maryland, and was found casually in Penn- 

 sylvania and New York. A western race, 

 slightly duller in color, the Louisiana para- 

 keet (Comiropsis carolinensis hidovici- 

 anns), was found from Louisiana and j\Iis- 

 sissippi to Ohio, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. 



Thick-billed Parrot 



(Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) 



In the Chiricahua ^Mountains of south- 

 eastern Arizona, at intervals of several 

 years, flocks of large parrots come to feed 

 on the seeds concealed in pine cones (Color 

 Plate I). 



Bills and feathers become smeared with 

 pitch, but the food is rich and attractive 

 and the birds linger in the pines untU all 

 this food is gone. Cold does not trouble 

 them, and they may remain through the ice 

 and snow of winter, feeding on acorns 

 when the crop of pine cones has been 

 harvested. 



The birds are found in flocks and range 

 widely, passing at times to other near-by 

 mountains. After a few months they 

 disappear. 



The proper home of this fine bird is in 

 the mountain ranges bordering the iNIexican 

 tableland, where it lives in large flocks 

 among the pines. The huge imperial wood- 

 pecker of that area is a friendly neigh- 

 bor, as its old nesting holes, cut in dead 

 or living pines to a depth of one and one- 

 half to two feet, furnish the parrots with 

 shelters in which to rear their families. 



From one to three eggs are deposited on 

 the fine bits of wood in the bottom of these 

 cavities, often late in the season, as small 

 young have been found in October. Since 

 the parrots range from 4,000 to 10,000 feet 

 altitude, the nights then are cold and the 

 young parrots must undergo some hardship. 



The last large invasion of these parrots 

 in the L^'nited States came in July, 1917, 

 the birds remaining until the following 

 Alarch. Their occasional appearance is 

 believed to be due to some lack in the food 

 supply in their proper home. 



The thick-billed parrot is found nor- 

 mally in the mountains of northern and 

 central ]\Iexico. In the United States, in 

 addition to the Chiricahua jNIountains, it 

 has been found in the Dragoon, Galiuro, 

 and Graham mountains in Arizona. 



Smooth-billed Ani 



(Crotopha<^a ani) 



The curious ani is of only casual occur- 

 rence within the United States, but in the 

 larger West Indian islands it is common 

 (Color Plate II). 



In a Puerto Rican pasture I first saw 

 these black, long-tailed birds on the ground, 

 feeding on insects disturbed by cattle. 



As I drew near, the anis began to call 

 querulously and then flew in straggling pro- 

 cession across the field to perch in a tree. 

 There they crowded so closely that they 

 touched one another, their long tails and 

 narrow, high-arched beaks giving them an 

 odd appearance. 



Always sociable, anis often build a bulky 

 community nest of sticks in a tree. In 

 this several females lay, and as many as 

 twenty eggs may be found together. The 

 habit is not universal, however, as I have 

 found one pair building apart from the 

 others. The eggs are clear blue, covered 

 with raised white lines of a chalky deposit. 



The smooth-billed ani is resident from 



