WOODPECKERS, CUCKOOS, ETC. 215 



" There are gray-haired men still among us who remem- 

 ber the shieking companies of * parrots ' which used to haunt 

 the bottom lands and go charging about the sycamores like 

 gusts of autumn leaves; but today only the cunning plume- 

 hunter or lucky ornithologist may penetrate to the remain- 

 ing fastnesses of the species in the Everglades of Florida." 



The flight of the paroquet is graceful and swift, com- 

 parable in both respects to that of the passenger pigeon. 

 The birds formerly moved about in companies of from fifty 

 to five hundred, and, when making extended flights, or 

 when coming down to feed, the flock fell into a V-shaped 

 figure something like that made by the Canada geese. 

 Although awkw'ard in confinement where their movements 

 are restricted, the birds move easily through the branches 

 of a tree, now swinging head downward to reach a drooping 

 seed, now regaining the perch by the aid of the powerful 

 beak, which is used as a third foot. The birds were espe- 

 cially noisy during flight and at meals, screaming and chat- 

 tering, but during the middle of the day they rested or 

 cooed tenderly, as if it were the mating season. Their favor- 

 ite food was the cockle-burr, which grows abundantly in low 

 places. Besides this, they ate wild fruit of many kinds — 

 persimmons, wild grapes, pawpaws — as well as beech nuts, 

 acorns, and the round seed-balls of the sycamore. When 

 settlers came, there was added wheat in the milk and culti- 

 vated fruits. 



The birds roosted in great hollow trees, mostly syca- 

 mores, where the great beak, which did duty for hands and 

 feet daytimes, rendered service as a hammock hook at night. 

 It was in hollow trees also that they nested. Thev breed 



