CAROLINA PARROT. 379 



and Mississippi ; so much so as to render the wool of those 

 sheep that pasture where it most abounds scarcely worth the 

 cleaning, covering them with one solid mass of burs, wrought up 

 and imbedded into the fleece, to the great annoyance of this 

 valuable animal. The seeds of the cypress tree and hack- 

 berry, as well as beech nuts, are also great favourites with 

 these birds; the two former of which are not commonly found 

 in Pennsylvania, and the latter by no means so general or so 

 productive. Here, then, are several powerful reasons, more 

 dependent on soil than climate, for the preference given by 

 these birds to the luxuriant regions of the west. Pennsyl- 

 vania, indeed, and also Maryland, abound with excellent apple 

 orchards, on the ripe fruit of which the paroquets occasionally 

 feed. But I have my doubts whether their depredations in 

 the orchard be not as much the result of wanton play and 

 mischief, as regard for the seeds of the fruit, which they are 

 supposed to be in pursuit of. I have known a flock of these 

 birds alight on an apple tree, and have myself seen them 

 twist off the fruit, one by one, strewing it in every direction 

 around the tree, without observing that any of the depredators 

 descended to pick them up. To a paroquet, which I wounded 

 and kept for some considerable time, I very often offered 

 apples, which it uniformly rejected ; but burs or beech nuts, 

 never. To 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 attach- 

 ments, 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 neigh- 

 bourhood of such places as have been described, it is rare to 

 see them. The inhabitants of Lexington, as many of them 

 assured me, scarcely ever observe them in that quarter. In 

 passing from that place to Nashville, a distance of two hun- 

 dred miles, I neither heard nor saw any, but at a place called 

 Madison's Lick. In passing on, I next met with them on 



