NORTH AMERICA. 
<ons which a r e the winter retreats and refidence of 
4 
thefe birds, where they rarely ling; as it is obferva- 
bie and moft true* that it is only at the time of in- 
cubation, that birds fing 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 inflances ; but all thefe breed in Pennsylvania. 
The parakeets (pfitacus Carolinienfis) never 
reach fo far North as Pennfyivania, which to me is 
unaccountable, confidenng they are a bird of fnch 
fi gular.y rapid flight, that they could eafily perforin 
the journey in ten q< twelve hours hom North Caro- 
lina, where they are very numerous, and we abound 
with all the fruits which they delight in. 
I was a ' fin ed in Carolina, that thefe birds, for a 
month or tw j in the coideft winter weather, houfe 
themfeives in hollow Cyprefi trees, clinging fad to 
each other like bees in a hive, where they continue 
in a torpid It e until the warmth of the emmi <g 
fpnng reanimates toe n, when they ifliie f rth from 
their late dark, . aid winter cloifters. But 1 lived 
feveral years in North Carolina, and never was wit- 
nefs t an m itarce of it; yet I do not at all doubt 
but there nave b-en inflances of belated flocks thus 
furpnfed by fudden fevere cold, and faced mtu fach 
fheiicr, and the extraordinary feverity and perfe- 
verance of die feafon might have benumoed them 
into a torpid lleepy ftate ; but that they all wil- 
lingly ihouid yield to fo difagreeable and hazard- 
ous a fttuation does not feem reaionable or natural, 
when we confider that they are a bird of the fwifiell 
flight, and impatient of fevere cold. They are eahiy 
tamed, when they become docile and fa liiiiar, but 
pever learn to imitate the human language. 
Both 
