118 
PSITTACUS CAROLINENSIS. 
these places. Eastward, however, of the great range 
of the Alleghany, it is seldom seen farther north than 
the state of Maryland ; though straggling parties have 
been occasionally observed among the valleys of the 
Juniata; and, according to some, even twenty-five 
miles to the north-west of Albany, in the state of New 
York.* But such accidental visits furnish no certain 
criteria, by which to judge of their usual extent of 
range ; those aerial voyagers, as well as others who 
navigate the deep, being subject to be cast away, by the 
violence of the elements, on distant shores and unknown 
countries. 
From these circumstances of the northern residence of 
this species, we might be justified in concluding it to be 
a very hardy bird, more capable of sustaining cold than 
nine-tenths of its tribe ; and so I believe it is ; having 
myself seen them, in the month of February, along the 
banks of the Ohio, in a snow-storm, flying about like 
pigeons, and in full cry. 
The preference, however, which this bird gives to the 
western countries, lying in the same parallel of latitude 
with those eastward of the Alleghany mountains, which 
it rarely or never visits, is w orthy of remark ; and has 
been adduced, by different writers, as a proof of the 
superior mildness of climate in the former to that of 
the latter. But there are other reasons for this par- 
tiality equally powerful, though hitherto overlooked ; 
namely, certain peculiar features of country to w r hich 
these birds are particularly and strongly attached : these 
are, low rich alluvial bottoms, along the borders of 
creeks, covered with a gigantic growth of sycamore 
trees, or button-wood ; deep, and almost impenetrable 
swamps, where the vast and tow ering cypress lift their 
still more majestic heads ; and those singular salines, 
or, as they are usually called, licks, so generally inter- 
spersed over that country, and w hich are regularly and 
eagerly visited by the paroquets. A still greater 
inducement is the superior abundance of their favourite 
Barton’s Fragments, &c. p. 6, Introduction. 
