Carolina Parakeet in Carolinas 91 



former locality for the species in the state. No one seems to have docu- 

 mented Hoxie's claim that "many localities hereabouts" have the term 

 "parrot" or "parakeet" in their names, and I cannot even precisely place 

 his "Parrot Ridge." 



Leverett M. Loomis, a careful student of ornithological history, turned 

 up no surprises in his history of certain South Carolina birds, but per- 

 haps was somewhat wide of the mark to place "the time of the dis- 

 appearance of the Paroquet from our local fauna" as about 1826 (1886). 

 But, his caution was commendable alongside the error of Hasbrouck 

 (1891:374) who indicated that Waldo Irving Burnett listed the parakeet 

 as present in the "pine barrens" in 1851. That unfortunate misfiring was 

 heard round the world. Wayne (1910), Ridgway (1916), Pearson et al. 

 (1919) and, as mentioned, Bent all allude to parakeets in the pine 

 barrens, if not Burnett by name. Burnett's paper "On the fauna of the 

 Pine Barrens of upper South Carolina" did indeed appear, as every- 

 body's bibliography says, in 1851. It is a list of species observed, "with a 

 few words on the 'conformability of individuals of the Fauna to each 

 other' — whatever they may be," as Elliott Coues put it (1878:637). 

 However, there is no reference to the Carolina parakeet in it. 



The general failure of observers to leave definite records might justly be 

 called Footnote Number One to the tragedy of the parakeet in South 

 Carolina. Footnote Number Two came later. Paul M. Rea remarked edi- 

 torially in 1919: "Tradition says that many years ago nearly a dozen 

 Carolina Parrakeets were destroyed because they were not in sufficiently 

 good condition to be exhibited. Some of these specimens undoubtedly 

 lived in South Carolina. The Parrakeet is now almost extinct and it is not 

 known that a single specimen from this state is in existence" (1919:7). 

 "Tradition says" was no doubt just a polite way to avoid naming names 

 and exposing someone to ridicule for the rashness of his action. 



SOUTH CAROLINA: THE PRESENT CENTURY 



Footnote Number Three to the parakeet in South Carolina may or may 

 not have been a tragedy, for it may be that parakeets were not involved. 

 Many real or alleged sightings of the Carolina parakeet have come in over 

 the years. Nearly all such claims from the 1930s and 1940s, interestingly 

 enough, were from South Carolina. It is from there, of course, that there 

 came what, from sheer bulk of documentation, must remain the 

 Gran'daddy of all "rediscoveries" of the parakeet. First, let me review 

 summarily the body of published matter. 



It all began when George M. Melamphy, working on a wild turkey pro- 

 ject in the Santee Swamp, Georgetown County, talked to Alexander 

 Sprunt, Jr., in 1933-1934, and reported several times seeing parakeets and 



