806 
THE CAROLINA PARROT. 
Centurus carolinensis. Linn . 
PLATE OOLXXVIII. — Male, Female, and Young. 
Doubtless, kind reader, you will say, while looking at the figures of 
Parakeets represented in the plate, that I spared not my labour. I never 
do, so anxious am I to promote your pleasure. 
These birds are represented feeding on the plant commonly called the 
Cockle-bur. It is found much too plentifully in every State west of the 
Alleghanies, and in still greater profusion as you advance towards the 
Southern Districts. It grows in every field where the soil is good. The 
low alluvial lands along the Ohio and Mississippi are all supplied with it. 
Its growth is so measured that it ripens after the crops of grain are usually 
secured, and in some rich old fields it grows so exceedingly close, that to 
make one’s way through the patches of it, at this late period, is no pleasant 
task. The burs stick so thickly to the clothes, as to prevent a person from 
walking with any kind of ease. The wool of sheep is also much injured .by 
them ; the tails and manes of horses are converted into such tangled 
masses, that the hair has to be cut close off, by which the natural beauty of 
these valuable animals is impaired. To this day, no useful property has 
been discovered in the cockle-bur, although in time it may prove as valua- 
ble either in medicine or chemistry as many other plants that had long 
been considered of no importance. 
Well, reader, you have before you one of these plants, on the seeds of 
which the Parrot feeds. It alights upon it, plucks the bur from the stem 
with its bill, takes it from the latter with one foot, in which it turns it over 
until the joint is properly placed to meet the attacks of the bill, when it 
bursts it open, takes out the fruit, and allows the shell to drop. In this 
manner, a flock of these birds, having discovered a field ever so well filled 
with these plants, will eat or pluck off all their seeds, returning to the place 
day after day until hardly any are left. The plant might thus be extir- 
pated, but it so happens that it is reproduced from the ground, being 
perennial, and our farmers have too much to do in securing their crops, to 
attend to the pulling up the cockle-burs by the roots, the only effectual 
way of getting rid of them. 
The Parrot does not satisfy himself with coclde-burs, but eats or destroys 
