TIIK CAROLINA PARRAKEET.-COCKATOOS. 
35 
THE CAROLINA PARRAKEET. 
This parrot is peculiar to North America, and is indeed the only bird of 
the species found there. It is met in the United States as far north as Lake 
Michigan, but on the east coast does not extend beyond Maryland. 
Not the least singular fact connected with the Carolina parrakeet is, that, 
being of a family otherwise so exclusively confined to the hottest regions of 
the tropics, it should be discovered at such an immense distance from what 
has been designated its natural home. That it is not a bird of passage is 
evident, as it has been seen in great flocks on the shores of the Ohio as late 
in the season as February. Yarious attempts have been made to account 
for the existence of such eminently hot-climate birds in a region where, at 
certain seasons of the year, ice and snow prevail, but among them all the 
following seems most feasible. “It is not to be ascribed to a milder cli¬ 
mate prevailing in these parts, so much as to the existence of certain pecu¬ 
liar features of country, to which these birds are particularly and strongly 
attached. These are low, rich, alluvial bottoms, along the borders of creeks, 
covered with a gigantic growth of sycamorc-trees or button-wood; deep and 
almost impenetrable swamps, where the vast and towering cypresses lift their 
still more majestic heads; and those singular salines, or, as they are called, 
licks, so regularly interspersed over that country, and which are regularly 
and eagerly visited by the parrakeets.” 
The Carolina parrakeet averages about fourteen inches in length from the 
base of its beak to its tail tip. The ground color of the bird is vivid emerald 
green dashed with purple and blue. The forehead and cheeks are orange red, 
and the rest of the head and neck gamboge. The body and under parts are 
a delicate yellowish green. The tail is green, tinged with orange red. The 
beak of this parrakeet is rounded and very hard and strong, and if it gets a 
fair chance to bite, you may depend 
it will not neglect it. 
In a natural state the parrakeets 
of Carolina are exceedingly sociable 
and kind one to another. They fly 
in large flocks, and roost in compa¬ 
nies thirty or forty strong in the in¬ 
side of a hollow tree, or other con¬ 
venient shelter. 
COCKATOOS. 
Cockatoos are distinguished from 
true parrots, although they belong 
to the parrot family, by a crest or 
tuft of elegant feathers on the head, 
which they can raise or depress at 
