89 



CAROLINA PARROT. 

 PSITTACUS CAEOLIJVEJVSIS. 

 [Plate XXVL— Fig. 1.] 



Linn. S^st. 141. — Catessy, I, 11. — Latham, I, 227. — Jrct. Zool. 242, No. 132. Ihid* 



133. — Peale's Museum, No. 762* 



OF one hundred and sixty eight kinds of Parrots enumerated 

 by European writers as inhabiting the various regions of the globe, 

 this is the only species found native within the territory of the 

 United States. The vast and luxuriant tracts lying within the tor- 

 rid zone seem to be the favorite residence of those noisy, numerous 

 and richly plumaged tribes. The count de BufFon has indeed cir- 

 cumscribed the whole genus of Parrots to a space not extending 

 more than twenty-three degrees on each side of the equator; but 

 later discoveries have shewn this statement to be incorrect; as 

 these birds have been found on our continent as far south as the 

 straits of Magellan, and even on the remote shores of Van Die- 

 men's Land, in Terra Australasia. The species now under con- 

 sideration is also known to inhabit the interior of Louisiana, and 

 the shores of the Mississippi and Ohio and their tributary waters, 

 even beyond the Illinois river, to the neighbourhood of lake Mi- 

 chigan in lat. 42° North; and, contrary to the generally received 

 opinion, is chiefly resident in all these places. Eastward, however, 

 of the great range of the Alleghany, it is seldom seen farther north 

 than the state of Maryland ; tho straggling parties have been oc- 

 casionally observed among the vallies of the Juniata; and accord- 

 ing to some, even twenty-five miles to the north-west of Albany, in 

 the state of New York.^ But such accidental visits furnish no cer^ 



* Barton's Fragments, &c. p. 6, Introd. 

 VOL. III. Z 



