PAROQUETS 155 



occurs in southern Florida. The occurrence of this species in 

 Alabama is accidental, and there is but one record — a speci- 

 men which I secured February 3, 1912, on Blakely Island, op- 

 posite Mobile. This bird was flushed from a bare sandy flat, 

 the only spot on this marshy island seemingly suited to its 

 habits. Its plumage was much discolored with soot, indicat- 

 ing that it had been visiting either coal dumps or burnt 

 marshes. 



General habits. — This owl differs from most other species 

 of its family in many respects. It dwells on treeless plains, 

 lives in colonies in burrows in the ground, and is to a certain 

 degree diurnal in habit. It occupies deserted burrows of 

 badgers, prairie dogs, and other animals, but the notion that 

 it dwells in harmony with the prairie dogs and rattlesnakes 

 has been shown to be a fallacy. 



PAROQUETS: Family Psittacidae. 



CAROLINA PAROQUET: Comtropsis carolinensis 

 (Linnaeus) .f 



State records. — The Carolina paroquet was formerly com- 

 mon in the South Atlantic and Gulf States and in the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. It is now exterminated in all its former habitat 

 except, perhaps, in southern Florida, where it is extremely 

 rare. No recent dates of its occurrence are known, and it 

 probably disappeared from Alabama prior to 1880. Early 

 records of this bird are found in several accounts of travelers 

 visiting the State. Saxe- Weimar, while on the Alabama River 

 below Cahaba, January 6, 1826, observed "several hundred 

 paroquets flying around, who kept up a great screaming. 

 Many were shot." Two days later, on the same river below 

 Claiborne, he "saw * * *, on the shores also, numbers of paro- 

 quets which make a great noise."J 



Gosse, writing from Dallas County about 1858, says (under 

 date of December 20) : 



fin the absence of any specimens from Alabama it is uncertain to which subspecies 

 the paroquets of this State belong: (cf. Bidgway, Birds North and Midd. Amer. Bull. 50, 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., Part 7, p. 148, X916). ,..,._, ,^ u -kt _... . 



tBernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach, Travels through North America, during 

 the years 1825 and 1826, vol. 2, pp. 36, 38, 1828. 



