252 SAROLINA PARROT. 
while I was asleep, instantly flew overboard, and perished in the Gulf 
of Mexico. — : Be At 
‘The Caro.ina or Illinois Parrot (for it has been described under 
both these appellations) is thirteen inches long, and twenty-one in 
extent ; forehead and cheeks, orange red; beyond this, for an inch and 
a half, down and round the neck, a rich and pure yellow; shoulder 
and bend of the wing, also édged with rich orange red. The general 
color of the rest of the plumage is a bright yellowish, silky green, with 
light blue reflections, lightest and most diluted with yellow below; 
greater wing-coverts and roots of the primaries, yellow, slightly tinged 
with green; interior webs of the primaries, deep dusky purple, almost. 
black; exterior ones, bluish green; tail, Jong, cuneiform, consisting’ 
of twelve feathers, the exterior one only half’ the length, the others 
increasing tothe middle ones, which are streaked along the middle 
with light blue ; shafts of all the larger feathers, and of most part of the 
green plumage, black; knees and vent, orange yellow; feet, a pale, 
whitish flesh color; claws, black; bill, white, or slightly tinged with- 
pale cream; iris of the eye, hazel; round the eye is a small space 
without feathers, covered with a whitish skin; nostrils placed in 4n 
elevated membrane at the base of the bill, and covered with feathers ; 
chin, wholly bare of feathers, but concealed by those descending on 
- each side; from each side of the palate hangs a lobe or skin of a 
blackish color ; tongue, thick and fleshy.; inside of the upper mandible 
near the point, grooved exactly like a file, that it may hold with more 
security. : \ ae : pr dachs 
_ The female differs very little in her colors and markings from the 
male.. After examining numerous specimens, the following appear to 
be the principal differences: —'The yellow'‘on the neck of the female 
does not descend quite so far; the interior vanes of the primaries are 
brownish, instead of black, and the orange red on the bend and edges 
of the wing is considerably narrower; in other respects, the colors 
and markings are nearly the same. ' ; 
The young birds of the preceding year, of both sexes, are generally 
destitute of the yellow on the head and neck, until about the begin- 
ning or middle of March, having those parts wholly green, except the 
front and cheeks, which are orange red in them, as in the full-grown 
birds. Towards the middle of March, the yellow begins to appear, in 
detached feathers, interspersed among the green, varying in different 
individuals. In some which I killed about the last of that month, only 
a few green feathers remained among the yellow, and these were fast 
assuming the yellow tint; for the color changes without change of 
plumage. A number of these birds, in all their grades of progressive 
change from green to yellow, have been deposited in Mr. Peale’s 
museum. SE te : de : 
What is calleu sy Europeans the illinois Parrot, (Psittacus pertinaz,) 
1s evidently the young bird in its imperfect colors: Whether the’pres- 
ent species be found as far south as Brazil, as these writers pretend, I 
am unable to say; but, from the great extent of country in which 
T have myself: killed and examined these birds, I am satisfied that the 
present species, now described, is the only one inhabiting’ the United 
States. te . sap ea 
Since the foregoing was written, I have had an opportur ity, by the 
ra 
