CAROLINA PARROT. 
383 
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 street 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 neighbourhood 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 dis- 
pleased at my detailing some of these, in the history of a 
particular favourite, 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 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 being on 
* Mr Audubon -S' information on their manner of breeding is as follows : — 
“ Their nest, or the place in which they deposit their eggs, is simply the 
bottom of such cavities in trees as those to which they usually retire at night. 
Many females deposit their eggs together. I am of opinion that the number 
of eggs which each individual lays is two, although I have not been able 
absolutely to assure myself of this. They are nearly round, of a rich greenish 
white. The young are at first covered with soft down, such as is seen on 
young Owls.” 
It may be remarked, that most of the Parrots, whose nidification we are 
acquainted with, build in hollow trees, or holed banks. Few make a nest for 
themselves, but lay the eggs on the bare wood or earth ; and when the nest is 
built outward, as by other birds, it is of a slight and loose structure. The 
eggs are always white Ed. 
