CAROLINA PARROT. 383 



that the young birds do not receive their full colours until 

 the early part of the succeeding summer.* 



"While parrots and paroquets, from foreign countries, abound 

 in almost every street of our large cities, and become such 

 great favourites, no attention seems to have been paid to our 

 own, which in elegance of figure, and beauty of plumage, is 

 certainly superior to many of them. It wants, indeed, that 

 disposition for perpetual screaming and chattering that 

 renders some of the former pests, not only to their keepers, 

 but to the whole neighbourhood in which they reside. It is 

 alike docile and sociable ; soon becomes perfectly familiar ; 

 and, until equal pains be taken in its instruction, it is unfair 

 to conclude it incapable of equal improvement in the language 

 of man. 



As so little has hitherto been known of the disposition and 

 manners of this species, the reader will not, I hope, be dis- 

 pleased at my detailing some of these, in the history of a 

 particular favourite, my sole companion in many a lonesome 

 day's march, and of which the figure in the plate is a faithful 

 resemblance. 



Anxious to try the effects of education on one of those 

 which I procured at Big Bone Lick, and which was but 

 slightly wounded in the wing, I fixed up a place for it in the 

 stern of my boat, and presented it with some cockle burs, 

 which it freely fed on in less than an hour after being on 



* Mr Audubon's information on their manner of breeding is as fol- 

 lows : — " Their nest, or the place in which they deposit their eggs, is 

 simply the bottom of such cavities in trees as those to which they usually 

 retire at night. Many females deposit their eggs together. I am of 

 opinion that the number of eggs which each individual lays is two, 

 although I have not been able absolutely to assure myself of this. They 

 are nearly round, of a rich greenish white. The young are at first 

 covered with soft down, such as is seen on young owls." 



It may be remarked, that most of the parrots, whose nidification we 

 are acquainted with, build in hollow trees, or holed banks. Few make 

 a nest for themselves, but lay the eggs on the bare wood or earth ; and 

 when the nest is built outward, as by other birds, it is of a slight and 

 loose structure. The eggs are always white. — Ed. 



