CAROLINA PARROT. 387 



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 colours 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 beginning or middle of March, having those parts 

 wholly green, except 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 colour 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 (Psittacus 

 pertinax), is evidently the young bird in its imperfect colours. 

 Whether the present species be found as far south as Brazil, 

 as these writers pretend, I am unable to say ; but from the 

 great extent of country in which I have myself killed and 

 examined these birds, I am satisfied that the present species, 

 now described, is the only one inhabiting the United States. 



Since the foregoing was written, I have had an opportunity, 

 by the death of a tame Carolina paroquet, to ascertain the 

 fact of the poisonous effects of their head and intestines on 

 cats. Having shut up a cat and her two kittens (the latter 

 only a few days old), in a room with the head, neck, and 

 whole intestines of the paroquet, I found, on the next morning, 

 the whole eaten except a small part of the bill. The cat 

 exhibited no symptom of sickness ; and, at this moment, three 

 days after the experiment has been made, she and her kittens 



