CAROLINA PARROT. 109 



it is ; having myself seen them, in the month of February, along the 

 banks of the Ohio, in a snow storm, flying about like pigeons, and ir 

 full cry. 



The preference, however, which this bird gives to the western coun- 

 tries, lying in the same parallel of latitude with those eastward of the 

 Alleghany mountains, which it rarely or never visits, is worthy of re- 

 mark ; and has been adduced, by different writers, as a proof of the 

 superior mildness of climate in the former to that of the latter. But 

 there are other reasons for this partiality equally powerful, though 

 hitherto overlooked; namely, certain peculiar features of country, to 

 which these birds are particularly and strongly attached ; these are, low, 

 rich, alluvial bottoms, along the borders of creeks, covered with a gigan- 

 tic growth of sycamore trees or button-wood — deep and almost impene- 

 trable swamps, where the vast and towering cypress lift their still more 

 majestic heads ; and those singular salines, or, as they are usually 

 called, licks, so generally interspersed over that country, and which are 

 regularly and eagerly visited by the Paroquets. A still greater induce- 

 ment is the superior abundance of their favorite fruits. That food which 

 the Paroquet prefers to all others, is the seeds of the cockle-burr, a plant 

 rarely found in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, or New York ; but 

 which unfortunately grows in too great abundance along the shores of 

 the Ohio and Mississippi, so much so as to render the wool of those 

 sheep, that pasture where it most abounds, scarcely worth the cleaning, 

 covering them with one solid mass of burrs, wrought up and imbedded 

 into the fleece, to the great annoyance of this valuable animal. The 

 seeds of the cypress-tree and hackberry, as well as beech-nuts, are also 

 great favorites with these birds ; the two former of which are not com- 

 monly found in Pennsylvania, and the latter by no means so general cr 

 so productive. Here then are several powerful reasons, more dependent 

 on soil than climate, for the preference given by these birds to the luxu- 

 riant regions of the west. Pennsylvania, indeed, and also Maryland, 

 abound with excellent apple orchards, on the ripe fruit of which the 

 Paroquets occasionally feed. But I have my doubts whether their depre- 

 dations in the orchard be not as much the result of wanton play and 

 mischief, as regard for the seeds of the fruit, which they are supposed 

 to be in pursuit of. I have known a flock of these birds alight on an 

 apple tree, and have myself seen them twist off the fruit, one by one, 

 strewing it in every direction around the tree, without observing that ?>ny 

 of the depredators descended to pick them up. To a Paroquet which I 

 wounded, and kept for some considerable time, I very often offered ap- 

 ples, which it uniformly rejected ; but burrs, or beech-nuts never. To 

 another very beautiful one, which I brought from New Orleans, and 

 which is now sitting in the room beside me, I have frequently offered 

 this fruit, and also the seeds separately, which I never knew it to taste. 



