CAROLINA PARROT. 
157 
bodies, and with great rapidity, making a loud and outrageous 
screaming, not unlike that of the Red-headed Woodpecker. 
Their flight is sometimes in a direct line; but most usually cir- 
cuitous, making a great variety of elegant and easy serpentine 
meanders, as if for pleasure. They are particularly attached to 
the large sycamores, in the hollow of the trunks, and branches 
of which, they generally roost, thirty or forty, and sometimes 
more, entering at the same hole. Here they cling close to the 
sides of the tree, holding fast by the claws, and also by the 
bills. They appear to be fond of sleep, and often retire to their 
holes during the day, probably to take their regular siesta. 
They ai’e extremely sociable with and fond of each other, often 
scratching each other’s heads and necks, and always at night 
nestling as close as possible to each other, preferring, at that 
time, a perpendicular position, supported by their bill and claws. 
In the Fall, when their favourite cockle-burrs are ripe, they 
swarm along the coast, or high grounds of the Mississippi, 
above New Orleans, for a great extent. At such times they 
are killed and eaten by many of the inhabitants; though I con- 
fess I think their flesh very indifferent. I have several times 
dined on it from necessity in the woods; but found it merely 
passable, with all the sauce of a keen appetite to recommend 
it.* 
A very general opinion prevails, that the brains and intes- 
tines of the Carolina Paroquet are a sure and fatal poison to 
cats. I had determined, when at Big-Bone, to put this to the 
test of experiment; and for that purpose collected the brains and 
bowels of more than a dozen of them. But after close search 
Mrs. Puss was not to be found, being engaged perhaps on more 
agreeable business. I left the medicine with Mr. Colquhoun’s 
* Had our author been provided with proper apparatus to cook these birds, 
and suitable condiments, he would, doubtless, have been of a different opinion. 
Mr. T. Peale and myself, when in East Florida, where tliis species is found 
in great numbers, thoug-ht tliem excellent eating. In Florida the Paroquets 
are migi'atory. We saw the first flock of them, at the Cowford, on the river 
St. John, on the first of March; the greater part of them were males. G. Ord, 
