296 CONUEUS CAROLINENSIS, CAROLINA PAEROQtJET. 



Family ARID^ : Parroquets. 



CONUEUS OAEOLINENSIS, (Linn.) Knhl. 

 Carolina Parroquet. 



PsUtaeus carolinenHs, Linn., Syst. Nat. i, 1766, 141 (Gates., i, 11 ; Biiiss., iv, 350).— 

 WiLS., Am. Oru. iii, 1811, 89, pi. 26, f. 1.— Bi\, Sjn. 1828, 41.— NuTT., Mau. i, 

 183i, 545.— AUD., Orn. Biog. i, 1832, 135, pi. 26. 



Ciynurus caroliuen^is, " Kum., Nov. Act. Acad. Cses. Leop.-Car. 1830." — Bp., List, 1838, 38 ; 

 Consp. i, 1850, p. 1.— Woodh., Sitgr. Eep. 1853, 89 (Texas and Indian Teni- 

 tory.— Max™., J. f. 0. v, 1C57, 97.— Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 67.— Hayd., Eep. 1862, 

 154 (Missouri Eiver below Platte).— CoUES, Pr. Bnst. Soc. 1868, 119 (South 

 Carolina, formerly).— Allen, Mera. Bost. Soc, i, 1868, 525 (Indiana, formerly).— 

 TuRNB., B. E. Pa. 1869, 41 (at rare intervals).- Allen, Bu:1. M. C. Z. ii, 1871, 

 308 (Florida, still abundant); iii, 1872, 130 (Kansas, formerly).— Thippe, Pr. 

 Bost. Soc. XV, 1872, 233 (Iowa).— Snow, B. Kans. 1873, 2 (Kansas, now occa- 

 sional).— Coues, Key, 1872, 199, fig. 133.— B. B. & E., N. A. B. li, 1874, 587, pi. 

 56, f. 1, 2.— FiNSCH, Die Papageien, i, 1867, 475. 



" Centurus" (err.) caroUiicrisis, AuD., Syn. 1839, 189; B. Am. iv, 1842,306, pi. 278. 



Psittacus ludovidanus, Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 1788, 347. 



Conurus ludovidanus, Geay, Cat. B. M. Psit. 1859, 36 (North America). 



Psiitacus luieicapillus, Vieill., Ency. Metb. p. 1402. 



Pfiittacus thalassimis, ViELLL., Ency. Meth. 1377. 



Hab. — Southernmost Atlantic and Gulf States; up the Mississippi Valley to Mis- 

 souri ; up the Missouri Eiver to the Platte. 



Lieutenant Warren's Expedition. — Nos. 4606-18, B ild Island, Missouri River, Nebraska. 



According to Gray (Hand-list, ii, 147, No. 8113), the Conurus caroJinensis of Kuhl is 

 not this but a Brazilian species, C. chrysogenys of authors, perh-ips referable to the P. 

 (eruginosus of Linnseus; and he quotes "2>ertiiiax p. FlN.scii" as synonymous. 



Among the more interesting ornithological results of Dr. Hayd^n's investigations 

 may be mentioned his discovery that this species is abundant at a higher point than 

 usually recognized — " along the thickly-wooded bottoms as far up the Missonri as Fort 

 Leavenworth, possibly as high as the mouth of the Platte, but never seen above that 

 point." Dr. Woodhonse, in 1853, recorded it as quite numerous iu the timber-lands of 

 the large streams of the Indian Territory and Eastern Texas. I never Ibund it along 

 the Mis ouri, or anywhere in Kansas, and neither did Mr. Allen, who merely mentions, 

 on the authority of Dr. C. A. Logan, that it was formerly common in Eastern Kansas, 

 but had not recently been observed. Prof. Snow, however, remarking upon its former 

 abundance in the woods of Eastern Kansas, states that it is still seen in thinly-settled 

 districts. In Iowa, according to Mr. Trippe, the Parrot still occurs. "A resident of 

 Decatur County told me that he had several times seen a flock of Parrots in the south- 

 ern part of the county, on a tall, dead cottonwood-tree, known to the neighboi'ing 

 people as the ' parrot-tree,' from its having been frequented at intervals by the same 

 flock for several years." 



A comparison of the earlier with the more recent accounts of the general distribu- 

 tion of the Carolina Parroquet, shows that it has been steadily contracting year by 

 year. About a century ago, we are informed by Prof. Barton, writing in 1790, a flock 

 appeared in January in the neighborhood of Albany, New York, and excited great con- 

 sternation, being regarded as of ev'l pot tent. We have various records of occurrences 

 in Pennsylvania, si that, even in 1869, Prof. Tnrnbull allowed it to hold a place in his 

 list of casuals. I retained it in my South Carolina list, with the remark that it seemed 

 hardly entitled to remain there, although it was abundant in that State not many 

 years since. Audubon (1632) has an interesting paragraph upon this subject : 



" Our Parrakeets are very rapidly dimmishing in number, and in some districts, 

 where twenty-five years ago they were plentiful, scarcely any are now to be seeu. At 

 that period they could be procured as far up the tributary waters of the Ohio as the 

 Great Kanawha, the Scioto, the heads of Miami, the mouth of the Manimee at its junc- 

 tion with Lake Erie, on the Illinois Eiver, and sometimes as far northeast as Lake 

 Ontario, and along the Eastern districts as far as the boundary-line between 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 Parrakeets are met with in con- 

 siderable numbers. I should think that along the Mississippi there is not now half the 

 number that existed fifteen years ago." 



In 1838, Dr. J. P. Kirtland stated, that " the Parrakeets do not usually extend their 

 visits north of the Scioto, though I am informed, perhaps on doubtful authority, that 

 thirty years since flicks of them were seen on the Ohio at the mouth of Big Beaver, 

 thirty miles below Pittsburgh." Mr. J. M. Wheaton admits it in his Ohio list, but with 



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