Si4 Colorado College Publication 



Pike mentions in his Journal a bird about the identity of 

 which there has been a certain amount of speculation, and 

 which Coues considered to have been the Carolina Paroquet. 

 The bird was taken by Pike December 25th, 1806, at which date 

 he was camped, as estimated by Coues, somewhere about the 

 neighborhood of Brown's Cation, 7 miles above Salida. Pike 

 says: 



"Caught a bird of a new species, having made a trap for 

 hin). This bird was of a green color, almost the size of a 

 quail, has a small tuft on its head like a pheasant, and was of 

 the carnivorous species; it differed from any bird we ever 

 saw in the United States. We kept him with us in a small 

 wicker cage, feeding him on meat, until I left the interpreter on 

 the Arkansaw, with whom I left it. We at one time took a 

 companion of the same species and put them in the same cage, 

 when the first resident never ceased attacking the stranger until 

 he killed him." 



Instead of being a Paroquet it seems much more probable 

 that this bird was a Road Runner for various reasons. The 

 color, green, applies to that bird as well as to the other, for 

 many of its feathers are of that color, and there is a strong 

 greenish tinge or cast to most of its plumage; the size of the 

 body is just about that of a quail ; and the feathers of the 

 head are erectile and make a crest or tuft quite similar to that 

 on the head of a Ruffed Grouse, which Pike probably meant 

 when he compared it to a pheasant, that being the name by 

 which the grouse was and is now known at his home. The 

 fact that they fed the bird on meat is another point in favor 

 of its being this species, which lives almost exclusively on 

 animal food. It also seems that a Road Runner would be 

 more likely to be caught in any trap Pike could have made than 

 a Paroquet; moreover. Pike must surely have known what a 

 parrot was like, and if he had caught one would have called it 

 such, even though he might have expressed surprise at finding 

 it in such a locality. Then again, if a Paroquet, the first caught 



