546 
ZYGODACTYLI. 
circmstaunces induce them commonly to visit much 
higher latitudes ; so that following the great valley of the 
Mississippi, they are seen to frequent the banks of the 
Illinois, and occasionally to approach the southern 
shores of Lake Michigan. Straggling parties even have 
sometimes been seen in the valley of the Juniata in 
Pennsylvania, and a flock, to the great surprise of the 
Dutch inhabitants of Albany, are said to have appeared 
in that vicinity. This species constantly inhabits and 
breeds in the Southern States, and is so far hardy as to 
make its appearance, commonly in the depth of winter, 
along the woody banks of the Ohio,, the interior of Ala- 
bama, and the banks of the Mississippi and Missouri 
around St. Louis, and other places, when nearly all other 
birds have migrated before the storms of the season. 
The Carolina Parakeets in all their movements, which 
are uniformly gregarious, show a peculiar predilection 
for the alluvial, rich, and dark forests bordering the 
principal rivers and larger streams, in which the tower- 
ing cypress # and gigantic sycamore f spread their vast 
summits, or stretch their innumerable arms, over a wide 
waste of moving or stagnant waters. From these, the 
beech, and the hack-berry, $ they derive an important 
supply of food. The flocks, moving in the manner of 
wild pigeons, dart in swift and airy phalanx through the 
green boughs of the forest ; screaming in a general con- 
cert, they wheel in wide and descending circles round the 
tall button-wood, and all alight in the same instant, their 
green vesture, like the fairy mantle, rendering them 
nearly invisible beneath the shady branches, where they 
sit, perhaps arranging their plumage, and, shuffling side 
by side, seem to caress, and scratch each other's heads 
with all the fondness and unvarying friendship of aflec- 
* Cupressus disticha. 
[ Platanus occidentalism 
| Celtis occidentalism 
