A TAME CAROLINA PARROT. 
387 
which had lived on cockle-burs might be injurious to the cat, although that which had eaten the 
comparatively harmless diet might do no injury. The nest of this bird is made in hollow trees. 
One of these Parrots was tamed by Wilson, who gave the following animated description 
of his favorite and her actions : — 
“ Anxious to try the effects of education on one of those which I procured at the Big Bone 
Lick, and which was but slightly wounded in the wing, I fixed up a place for it in the stern 
of my boat, and presented it with some cockle-burs, which it freely fed on, in less than an hour 
after it had been on board. The intermediate time between eating and sleeping was occupied 
in gnawing the sticks that formed its place of confinement, in order to make a practicable 
breach, which it repeatedly effected. 
‘‘When I abandoned the river and travelled by land, I wrapped it up closely in a silk 
handkerchief, tying it tightly around, and carried it in 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 bur in a twinkling ; in doing which it 
always employed its left foot to hold the bur, 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 they all 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 and 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 right-footed. 
‘ ‘ But to return to my prisoner. In recommitting it to ‘ durance vile 5 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 disabling several of my fingers with its sharp and 
powerful bill. 
“The path 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 ever- 
greens, 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 aloDg. 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 
upwards 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 Choctaw nations, the Indians, whenever I stopped 
to feed, collected around me — men, women, and children — laughing, and seemingly wonderfully 
amused with the novelty of my companion. The Chickasaws called it in their language 
‘ Kelinky,’ but when they heard me call it Poll, they soon repeated the name ; and whenever 
I chanced to stop amongst these people, we soon become familiar with each other through the 
medium of Poll. 
“ On arriving at Mr. Dunbar’s, below 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 immediately above, keep- 
ing up a constant conversation with the prisoner. One of these I wounded slightly in the wing, 
and the pleasure Poll expressed on meeting with this new companion was really amusing. 
She crept close up to it, as it hung on the side of the cage, chattering to it in a low tone 
of voice as if sympathizing in its misfortune, scratched about its head and neck with her bill, 
and both at night nestled as close as possible to each other, sometimes Poll’s head being 
thrust among the plumage of the other. 
