( 
CAROLINA PARROT. 113 
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 burr in a twinkling ; in doing 
which it always employed its left foot to hold the burr, 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 the whole 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 rigid-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 disal)ling several of my fingers with its sharp and powerful bill. 
The path through the wilderness, between Nashville and Natchez, is in 
some places bad beyond description. There are dangerous creeks to 
swim, miles of morass to struggle through, rendered almost as gloomy 
as night by a prodigious growth of timber, and an underwood of canes 
and other evergreens ; while the descent into these sluggish streams is 
often ten or fifteen feet perpendicular into a bed of deep clay. In some 
of the worst of these places, where I had, as it were, to fight my way 
through, the Paroquet frequently escaped from my pocket, obliging me 
to dismount and pursue it through the worst of the morass, before I 
could regain it. On these occasions I was several times tempted to 
abandon it ; but I persisted in bringing it along. When at night I 
encamped in the woods, I placed it on the baggage beside me, where it 
usually sat, with great composure, dozing and gazing at the fire till 
morning. In this manner I carried it upAvards of a thousand miles in 
my pocket, where it was exposed all day to the jolting of the horse, but 
regularly liberated at meal times, and in the evening, at which it always 
expressed great satisfaction. In passing through the Chickasaw and 
ChoctaAV nations, the Indians, wherever I stopped to feed, collected 
around me, men, women and children, laughing and seeming wonder- 
fully amused with the novelty of my companion. The ChickasaAvs 
called it in their language " /ix7<«% ;" but when they heard me call it 
Poll, they soon repeated the name ; and wherever I chanced to stop 
among these people, we soon became familiar with each other through 
the medium of Poll. On arriving at Mr. Dunbar's, beloAV Natchez, I 
procured a cage, and placed it under the piazza, where by its call it 
soon attracted the passing flocks, such is the attachment they have for 
each other. Numerous parties frequently alighted on the trees imme- 
diately above, keeping up a constant conversation with the prisoner. 
Vol. L— 8 
