CAROLINA PARROT 



93 



Woodpecker. Their flight is sometimes in a direct line; but most 

 usually circuitous, making a great variety of elegant and easy ser- 

 pentine meanders, as if for pleasure. They are particularly at- 

 tached to the large sycamores, in the hollow of the trunks and 

 branches of which they generally roost, thirty or forty, and some- 

 times more, entering at the same hole. Here they cling close to 

 the sides of the tree, holding fast by the claws and also by the 

 bills. They appear to be fond of sleep, and often retire to their 

 holes during the day, probably to take their regular siesta. They 

 are extremely sociable with and fond of each other, often scratch- 

 ing each other's heads and necks, and always at night nestling as 

 close as possible to each other, preferring, at that time, a perpen- 

 dicular position, supported by their bill and claws. In the Fall, 

 when their favorite cockle burrs are ripe, they swarm along the 

 coast or high grounds of the Mississippi, above New Orleans, for a 

 great extent. At such times they are killed and eaten by many 

 of the inhabitants; tho I confess I think their flesh very indiffer- 

 ent. I have several times dined on it from necessity in the woods ; 

 but found it merely passable, with all the sauce of a keen appetite 

 to recommend it. 



A very general opinion prevails, that the brains and intes- 

 tines of the Carolina Parakeet are a sure and fatal poison to cats. 

 I had determined, when at Big Bone, to put this to the test of ex- 

 periment; and for that purpose collected the brains and bowels of 

 more than a dozen of them. But after close search Mrs. Puss was 

 not to be found, being engaged perhaps on more agreeable busi- 

 ness. I left the medicine with Mr. Colquhoun's agent, to admi- 

 nister it by the first opportunity, and write me the result; but I 

 have never yet heard from him. A respectable lady near the town 

 of Natchez, and on whose word I can rely, assured me, that she 

 herself had made the experiment, and, that whatever might be the 

 cause, the cat had actually died either on that or the succeeding 

 day. A French planter near Bayo Fourche pretended to account 



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