248 CAROLINA PARROT. 
it uniformly rejected; but burs or beech nuts, never. T'o 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.. Their local 
attachments, also, prove that food, more than climate, determines their 
choice of country. For even in the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and 
the Mississippi Territory, unless in the neighborhood of such places as 
have been described, it is rare to see them. The inhabitants of Lex- 
ington, as many of them assured me, scarcely ever observe them in 
that quarter. In passing from that place to Nashville, a distance of 
two hundred miles, I neither heard nor saw any, but at a place called 
Madison’s Lick. In passing on, I next met with them on the banks 
and rich flats of the ‘Tennessee River: after this, I saw no more til] T 
reached Bayou St. Pierre, a distance of several hundred miles; from 
all which circumstances, I think we cannot, from the residences of 
these birds, establish with propriety any correct standard by which to 
judge of the comparative temperatures of different climates. 
In descending the River Ohio, by myself, in the month of February, 
I met with the first flock of Paroquets at the mouth of the Little 
Scioto. I had been informed, by an old and respectable inhabitant of 
Marietta, that they were sometimes, though rarely, seen there. I ob- 
served flocks of them, afterwards, at the mouth of the Great and Little 
Miaimi, and in the neighborhood of numerous creeks that discharge 
themselves into the Ohio. At Big Bone Lick, thirty miles above the 
mouth of Kentucky River, I saw them in great numbers. They came 
screaming through the woods in the morning, about an hour-after sun- 
rise, to drink the salt water, of which they, as well as the Pigeons, 
are remarkably fond. When they alighted on the ground, it appeared 
at a distance as if covered with a carpet of the richest green, orange, 
and yellow: they afterwards settled, in one body, ona neighboring: 
tree, which stood detached from any other, covering almost every twig 
of it, and the sun, shining strongly on their gay and glossy plumage, 
produced a very beautiful and splendid appearance. Here I had an 
opportunity of observing some very particular traits of their charac- 
ter: Having shot down a number, some of which were only wounded, 
the whole flock swept repeatedly around their prostrate companions, 
and again settled on a low tree, within twenty yards of the spot where 
I stood. At each successive discharge, though showers of them fell, 
yet the affection of the survivors seemed rather to increase ; for, after 
a few circuits around the place, they again alighted near me, looking 
down on their slaughtered companions with:such menifest symptoms 
‘of sympathy and concern, as entirely disarmed me. I could not but 
take notice of the remarkable contrast between their elegant manner 
of flight, and their lame and crawling gait among the branches. They 
fly very much like the Wild Pigeon, in close, compact bodies, and with 
great rapidity, making a loud and outrageous screaming, not unlike 
that of the Red-headed Woodpecker. Their flight is sometimes in a 
direct line ; but most usually circuitous, making a great variety of el- 
egant and easy serpentine meanders, as if for pleasure. They are 
particularly attached to the large sycamores, in the hollow of the 
trunks and branches of which they generally roost, thirty or forty, and 
sometimes more, entering at the same hole. Here they cling close to 
