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Carolina Parakeet
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At Big Bone Lick, thirty miles above the mouth of the Kentucky River,I saw them in great numbers. They came screaming through the woods in the morning, about an hour after sunrise, to drink the salt water, of which they, as well as the pigeons, are remarkably fond. When they alighted on the ground, it appeared at a distance as if covered by a carpet of richest green, orange and yellow: they afterward settled, in one body, on a neighboring tree, which stood detached from any other, covering almost every twig of it, and the sun, shining strongly on their gay and glossy plumage, produced a very beautiful and splendid appearance. Here I had the opportunity of observing some very particular traits of their character: having shot down a number, some of which were only wounded, the whole flock swept repeatedly around their prostrate companions, and again settled on a low tree, within twenty yards of the spot where I stood. At each successive discharge, though showers of them fell, yet the affections of the survivors seemed rather to increase; for, after a few circuits around the place, they again alighted near me, looking down on their slaughtered companions with such manifest symptoms of sympathy and concern, as entirely disarmed me. Alexander Wilson, the American ornithology, 1808 |
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carolina
parakeet |
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The last passenger pigeon died in September 1914 and within 3 years the last Carolina Parakeet fell from it's perch in it's nearby enclosure in the Cincinnati Zoo. The only parrot native to the U.S. we can blame its demise on habitat destruction, feather trade, sport, meat and the pet market. Farmers considered the bird a pest. The colorful bird was already being depleted when Cincinnati wildlife artist and naturalist John James Audubon wrote in 1831, "Our Parakeets are rapidly diminishing in number; and in some districts, where twenty-five years ago they were plentiful, scarcely any are now to be seen."He wrote,"The Parakeets are destroyed in great numbers, for whilst busily engaged in plucking off the fruits or tearing the grain from the stacks, the husbandman approaches them with perfect ease, and commits great slaughter among them....the gun is kept at work....until so few remain alive, that the farmer does not consider it worth his while to spend more of his ammunition." While the parakeets were unwelcome visitors to the farmer audubon appreciated their merits. "The woods are the habitation best fitted them, and there the richness of their plumage, their beautiful mode of flight, and even the screams, afford welcome intimation that our darkest forests and most sequestered swamps are not destitute of charms."
This watercolor was user in Carole Weatherford's account of the bird.
memorial in the Missing Animals of Ohio Graveyard here |
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