NORTH AMERICA® 
299 
ons which are the winter retreats and refidence of 
thefe birds, where they rarely fing; as it is obferva- 
ble and moil true, that it is only at the time of incu- 
bation, that birds fmg in their wild (late 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 inflances ; but all thefe breed in Fenfylvania. 
The parakeets (pfitacus Carolinienfis) never 
reach fo far North as Pennfylvania, which to me is 
• unaccountable, confidering they are a bird of fuch 
•Angularly 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 fail to 
each other like bees in a hive, where they continue 
in a torpid Hate until the warmth of the returning 
fpring reanimates them, when they iflfue forth from 
their late dark, cold winter cloifters. But I lived 
feveral years in North Carolina and never was wit- 
nefs to an inflance of it ; yet I do not at all doubt 
but there have been inftances of belated docks thus 
furprifed by fuclden fevere cold, and forced into fuch 
fhelter, and the extraordinary feverity and perfe- 
ve ranee of the feafon might have benumbed them 
into a torpid, fleepy hate ; but that they all wil- 
lingly fhould yield to fo difagreeable and hazard- 
ous a flotation 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 ea- 
fily tamed, when they become docile and familiar, 
but never learn to imitate the human language. 
