118 
PSITTACUS CAROLINENSIS. 
these places. Eastward, however, of the great 
of the Alleghany, it is seldom seen farther north tha^ 
the state of Maryland ; though straggling parties h»^^ 
been occasionaUy observed among the valleys 
Juniata; and, according to some, even twenty^ 
miles to the north-west of Albany, in the state of 
York.* But such accidental visits furnish no certa*^ 
criteria, by which to judge of their usual extent ® 
range ; those aerial voyagers, as well as others f * 
navigate the deep, being subject to be cast away, by * 
violence of the elements, on distant shores and unkno" 
countries. _ f 
From these circumstances of the northern residence ^ 
tliis species, we might be justified ia concluding it to 
a very hardy bird, more capable of sustaining cold th ^ 
nine-tenths of its tribe ; and so I believe it is ; hav'jk 
myself seen them, in the month of February, along 
banks of the Ohio, in a snow-storm, dying about h 
pigeons, and in full cry. ... Uie 
The preference, however, which this bird mves to t 
western countries, lying in the same parallel of latitn jj 
with those eastward of the Alleghany mountains, wh^^j 
it rarely or never visits, is worthy of remark ; and 
been adduced, by different writers, as a proof of 1*'^ 
superior mildness of climate in the former to that " 
the tatter. But there are otlier reasons for this P^, 
tiality equally ])Owerful, though hitherto overlooked’ 
namely, certain peculiar features of country to wh'd^ 
these birds are ])articularly and strongly attached : 
iwe, low rich alluvial bottoms, along the borders 
creeks, covered with a gigantic growth of sycaind 
trees, or button-wood ; deep, and almost impeuetrab,^ 
swamps, where the vast and towering cypress lift tbe 
still more majestic heads; and those singular sahnb^^ 
or, as they are usually called, iicAs, so generally 
spersed over that country, and which are regularly *' 
eagerly visited by the paroquets. A still gre* 
inducement is the superior abundance of their favoiu’ 
♦ Bartoh’s Fragments, &c. p. 6, Introduction* 
