THE CAROLINA PARROT. 113 



fed on in less than an hour after being on board. 

 The intermediate time between eating and sleeping 

 was occupied in gnawing the sticks that formed its 

 place of confinement, in order to make a practicable 

 breach ; which it repeatedly effected. Wlien I 

 abandoned the river, and travelled by land, I wrapt 

 it up closely in a silk handkerchief, tying it tightly 

 round, and carried it in my pocket. When I stopped 

 for refreshment, I unbound my prisoner, and gave 

 it its allowance, which it generally despatched with 

 great dexterity, unhusking the seeds from the bur 

 in a twinkling ; in doing which, it always employed 

 its left foot to hold the bur, as did several others 

 that I kept for some time. I. began to think that 

 this might be peculiar to the whole tribe, and that 

 they all were, if I may use the expression, left- 

 footed ; but by shooting a number afterwards while 

 engaged in eating mulberries, I found sometimes 

 the left, sometimes the right foot, stained with the 

 fruit, the other always clean ; from which, and the 

 constant practice of those I kept, it appears, that 

 like the human species in the use of their hands, 

 they do not prefer one or the other indiscriminately, 

 but are either left or right footed. But to return 

 to my prisoner: In recommitting it to * durance 

 vile,' we generally had a quarrel ; during which it 

 frequently paid me in kind for the wound I had 

 inflicted, and for depriving it of liberty, by cutting 

 and almost disabling several of my fingers with its 

 sharp and powerful bill. The path through the 

 wilderness Ijetwccn N.'ishville and Natchez, is in 

 K 2 



