252 CAROLINA PARROT. 
while I was asleep, instantly flew overboard, and perished in the Gulf 
of Mexico. 
The Carolina or Dlinois 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 edged 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, long, cuneiform, consisting 
of twelve feathers, the exterior one only half the length, the others 
increasing fo the 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 an 
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 skimof 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. : 
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, cxcept 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. 
What is called by Europeans the Illinois Parrot, ( Psillacus pertinaz,) 
is evidently the young bird in its imperfect colors. Whether the pres- 
ent species be found as far south as Brazil, as thesc 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 
ani species, now described, is the only ong inhabiting the United 
tates, : 
Since the foregoing was written, I Rave had an opportuy ity, by the 
