CAROLINA PARROT. 
159 
and neck, of both sexes, during the two former of these months, 
convinces me, that the young birds do not receive their full 
colours until the early part of the succeeding summer. 
While Parrots and Paroquets, from foreign countries, abound 
in almost every sti’eet of our large cities, and become such great 
favourites, no attention seems to have been paid to our own, 
which in elegance of figure, and beauty of plumage, is certainly 
superior to many of them. It wants, indeed, that disposition 
for perpetual screaming and chattering, that renders some of the 
former, pests, not only to their keepers, but to the whole neigh- 
bourhood in which they reside. It is alike docile and sociable; 
soon becomes perfectly familiar; and until equal pains be taken 
in its instruction, it is unfair to conclude it incapable of equal 
improvement in the language of man. 
As so little has hitherto been known of the disposition and 
manners of this species, the reader will not, I hope, be displeased 
at my detailing some of these, in the history of a particular fa- 
vourite, my sole companion in many a lonesome day’s march, 
and of which the figure in the plate is a faithful resemblance. 
Anxious to try the effects of education on one of those which 
I procured at Big-Bone lick, and which was but slightly wound- 
ed in the wing, I fixed up a place for it in the stern of my boat, 
and presented it with some cockle-burrs, which it freely fed on 
in less than an hour after being 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 aban- 
doned the river, and travelled by land, I wrapt 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 burr in a 
twinkling; in doing which it always employed its left foot to 
hold the burr, 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 the whole were, if I may use the expression, left-footed; 
