* 
NORTH AMERICA. ffrttt 
ens which are the winter retreats and reudence of 
thefe birds, where they rarely fing ; as it is obferva- 
ble and mo ft true, that it is only at the time of incu- 
bation, that birds ling in their wild ftate of nature. 
The cat-bird, great and lefs thrufh and fieldfare, 
feldom or never build in Carolina beneath the moun~ 
tains, except the great or fox coloured thrufh in a 
few inftances ; but all thefe breed in Pennfylvania. 
The parakeets (pfitacus Carolinienfis) never 
reach fo far North as Pennfylvania, which to me is 
unaccountable, confidering they are a bird of fuch 
lingular ly rapid flight, that they could eafily perform 
the journey in ten or twelve hours from North Caro- 
lina, where they are very numerous, and we abound 
with all the fruits which they delight in. 
I was allured in Carolina, that thefe birds, for a 
month or two in the coldeft winter weather, houfe 
themfelves in hollow Cyprefs trees, clinging fan: to 
each other like bees in a hive, where they continue 
in a torpid ftate until the warmth of the returning 
fpring reanimates them, when they iffue forth from 
their late dark, cold winter cloifters. But I lived 
feveral years in North Carolina and never was wit- 
nefs to an inftance of it ; yet I do not at all doubt 
but there have been inftances of belated flocks thus 
furprifed by fudden fevere cpld, and forced into fuch 
fheker, and the extraordinary fe verity and perfeve- 
ranee of the feafon might have benumbed them into 
a torpid, fleepy ftate; but that they all willingly 
Ihould yield to fo difagreeable and hazardous a fitu- 
ation does not feem reafonable or natural, when we 
confider that they are a bird of the fwifteft flight and 
impatient of fevere cold. They are eafily tamed, 
when they become docile and familiar, but never 
learn to imitate the human language,, 
Both 
