430 PARROTS. 
In the depth of winter, when other resources begin to fail, 
they, in common with the Yellow Bird and some other 
Finches, assemble among the tall sycamores, and hanging 
from the extreme twigs in the most airy and graceful postures, 
scatter around them a cloud of down from the pendant balls 
in quest of the seeds, which now afford them an ample repast. 
With that peculiar caprice, or perhaps appetite, which char- 
acterizes them, they are also observed to frequent the saline 
springs or Zicks to gratify their uncommon taste for salt. Out 
of mere wantonness they often frequent the orchards, and 
appear delighted with the fruitless frolic of plucking apples 
from the trees and strewing them on the ground untasted. 
So common is this practice among them in Arkansas Territory 
that no apples are ever suffered to ripen. They are also fond 
of some sorts of berries, and particularly of mulberries, which 
they eat piecemeal in their usual manner as they hold them by 
the foot. According to Audubon, they likewise attack the 
outstanding stacks of grain in flocks, committing great waste ; 
and on these occasions, as well as the former, they are so 
bold or incautious as readily to become the prey of the sports- 
man in great numbers. Peculiarity of food appears wholly to 
influence the visits and residence of this bird, and in plain, 
champaign, or mountainous countries they are wholly strangers, 
though common along the banks of all the intermediate 
watercourses and lagoons. 
Of their manners at the interesting period of propagation 
and incubation we are not yet satisfactorily informed. They 
nest in hollow trees and take little if any pains to provide more 
than a simple hollow in which to lay their eggs, like the Wood- 
peckers. They are at all times particularly attached to the 
large sycamores, in the hollow trunks of which they roost in 
close community, and enter at the same aperture into which 
they climb. They are said to cling close to the sides of the 
tree, holding fast by the claws and bill; and into these hollows 
they often retire during the day, either in very warm or incle- 
ment weather, to sleep or pass away the time in indolent and 
social security, like the Rupicolas of the Peruvian caves, at 
