Carolina Parakeet in Carolinas 85 



from 1761 to 1765 and 1770 to 1772 at the plantation of his uncle William 

 who lived near present-day Council, Bladen County, in the Cape Fear 

 River country. He wondered that parakeets did not appear in his native 

 Pennsylvania, since they could, he thought, easily fly from North 

 Carolina, "where they are very numerous" (1958:182, 190-191). 



In a search of literature lasting nearly 20 years I have found no records 

 of parakeets in the inland central and western three-quarters of North 

 Carolina. Negative reports are never of much value singly, although I have 

 cited Lawson's account above. I am also impressed by such a diary as that 

 of Lieutenant Reeves, an intelligent Revolutionary War soldier of the 

 Pennsylvania Line (1897). He crossed the entire central North Carolina 

 region from north to south in the spring of 1782, alert to all natural 

 phenomena, but saw no parakeets until he was within South Carolina. 



NORTH CAROLINA: A CRITIQUE OF RETROSPECTS 



Considering enormous geographic differences between North and South 

 Carolina, it is unfortunate that even ornithologists have so often lumped 

 them as "the Carolinas." It is certainly doubtful if a statement that, 

 "They apparently were common in the Carolinas up to 1850, or perhaps 

 1860, but must have disappeared from there soon after that" (Bent 

 1940:3) ought to stand as any sort of North Carolina record. H. H. 

 Brimley wrote that the Austro-riparian or Louisianian Life Zone, charac- 

 terized by the alligator, marsh rabbit, big eared bat and chuck- will's- 

 widow, "formerly . . . received added brilliance in North Carolina by the 

 presence of the gaudy and noisy Carolina Parroquet," but he offered no 

 significant evidence of its occurrence (1896:66). C. S. Brimley had been 

 asked by old people "what was the bird that used to roam over the state 

 before the Civil War and eat cocklebur," but this is not satisfactory proof 

 of its existence or time of disappearance (MS. note, N. C. State Mu- 

 seum). 



The first state-wide bird list described the species as among those gone 

 from North Carolina due to "changes in their environment," an instance 

 of misplaced precision if there ever was one. No doubt optimistically, it 

 was thought that the species might still be looked for as an accidental visi- 

 tor in southeastern parts of the state (Atkinson 1887:50, 65). 



Being totally unhelpful, both Hasbrouck (1891:374) and Smithwick 

 (1 897 :21 2) cited Catesby as the only previous authority for the parakeet in 

 North Carolina, despite the fact that Catesby did not refer to that state 

 (Wayne 1917:3). Pearson et al. also mentioned "Catesby 's record in 

 1731" (1919:184), adding to its geographic ambiguity the fact that the 

 date was the rather belated year of publication, not the time when he 



