CAROLINA PAROQUET, 



Conurus carolinensis Lesson. 



Plate XXVI. Fig. 5. 



[^HE Carolina Paroquet, also known as the Parakeet, Carolina Parrot, and 

 Illinois Parrot, was once an exceedingly abundant bird in the United Sta,tes east 

 of the Rocky Mountains, particularly in the Southern States and in the entire valley of 

 the Mississippi north to the Great Lakes. It even occurred in Michigan and New York. 

 In Wilson's and Audubon's time it was a conspicuous bird on the Ohio and Mississippi, 

 where it was seen in very large flocks. At present, however, its range is very restricted, 

 being only found in moderate numbers in southern Florida, and perhaps: in some remote 

 places of Louisiana, Texas, and the Indian Territory. With the exceedingly rapid settle- 

 ment of all the fertile portions inhabited by these birds their number gradually diminished, 

 until they w^ere entirely exterminated in most places. Their total extermination is only 

 a question of time, and by the beginning of the twentieth century probably the last one 

 will have disappeared even from the extensive tropical forests of the Everglades. 



When I visited Florida in April, 1886, I saw small flocks in th^woods near Lake 

 Apopka. In Orlando and Sanford freshly caught Parakeets were offered for sale in large 

 numbers. In March, 1891, a pair of these birds were obtained for the Public Museum 

 of Milwaukee, near Gotha, Orange Co., Fla. The small flocks which I saw proceeded 

 with an astonishing rapidity and swiftness through the air. Their flight was very 

 graceful and somewhat undulating, reminding me strongly of that of the Passenger 

 Pigeon. I saw the birds only in the extensive hammock woods and cypress swamps. 



The food of the Parakeet, before the country was extensively settled, consisted of 

 tne seeds of the cocklebur {Xanthium strumarium) , of the seed contained in the round 

 balls of the sycamore, pecan and beech nuts, seeds of the magnolia and tulip tree, fruits 

 of the popaw {Asimia triloba), wild cherry, mulberry, etc. It has also been observed 

 that they consumed the seeds of the sand-spur or burr-grass {Cencbras echinatus), one 

 of the vilest and most troublesome weeds in existence. They have also been known to 

 visit the corn-fields, where they indulged in eating the sweet milky seeds. According to 

 Mr, Frank M. Chapman, they eat the milky seeds of a species of thistle (Cirsium Lecontei). 

 He saw them feeding among the thistles in March, 1890, on the Sebastian River in 

 Florida. 



"Although clumsy looking birds on the ground," writes Major Chas. Bendire, "it 

 is astonishing how readily they move about on the slenderest limbs in trees, frequently 

 hanging head down, like Crossbills and Redpolls, nipping off the seed bulbs of the syca- 

 mores, etc., and swinging themselves, with the assistance of their powerful beaks, from 

 the extremity of one branch to another. 



"Their flight, which is more or less undulating, resembles both that of the Passenger 

 Pigeon and then again that of the Falcons ; it is extremely swift and graceful, enabling 

 them, even when flying in rather compact flocks, to dart in and out of the densest 



