loos '] Ornithological Work in North Carolina 
37 
from making this improvement. Very often in autumn when the 
apples begin to ripen they are visited with numerous flights of 
paroquets, that bite all the fruit to pieces in a moment for the 
sake of the kernels. The havoc they make is sometimes so 
great that sometimes whole orchards are laid waste in spite 
of all the noises that can be made or mawkins that can be dressed 
up to frighten them away. These ravenous birds visit North Car- 
olina only during the warm season and so soon as the cold begins 
to come on retire back towards the sun. They rarely venture so 
far north as Virginia except in a very hot summer, when they 
visit the most southern parts of it. They are very beautiful, but 
like some other pretty creatures are apt to be loud and mischiev- 
ous.’ ’ He does not attempt to catalog the birds of the country. 
In the library of the State College at Columbia, S. C., I recent- 
ly found that rare and interesting work of Catesby “The Natural 
History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands,” published 
in 1731. A careful reading of its pages, however, reveals the fact 
that the author in all probability was never within the borders of 
North Carolina. He went up the Savannah river almost to the 
mountains and hunted buffalo with the Indians; later he sailed 
for Virginia, and ascending the James river, traveled thence 
westward to a point almost north of that reached on his trip from 
Savannah. There seems to be no evidence that he ever saw the 
intervening territory. This is to be regretted, as Catesby was not 
only an artist of merit but for the times must have been a very 
careful and painstaking naturalist. I mention this work because 
its title would lead one to think he had made a study of the Nat- 
ural History of this state. 
In my quest for information regarding early ornithological 
writers I applied to North Carolina’s most noted historian of today, 
Dr. Stephen B. Weeks, and from him received many courtesies 
including the loan of some of the books from his extensive library. 
One of these is the work of Dr. John Brickell published in Dublin 
in 1737, and bearing a comprehensive title as follows: “The Nat- 
ural History of North Carolina, with an account of the trade, man- 
ners, and customs of the Christian and Indian inhabitants; illus- 
trated with copper plates, whereon are curiously engraved the map 
