Carolina Parrot

Carolina Parrot [now Carolina Parakeet, extinct]
Psitacus carolinensis Linnaeus [now Conuropsis carolinensis Linnaeus]
Folio edition, plate 26

“The Parrot . . . eats or destroys almost every kind of fruit indiscriminately, and on this account is always an unwelcome visitor to the planter, the farmer, or the gardener. The stacks of grain put up in the field are resorted to by flocks of these birds, which frequently cover them so entirely, that they present to the eye the same effect as if a brilliantly coloured carpet had been thrown over them. . . . They assail the Pear and Apple-trees. . . . They visit the Mulberries, Pecan-nuts, Grapes, and even the seed of the Dogwood. . . . Do not imagine, reader, that all these outrages are borne without severe retaliation on the part of the planters. So far from this, 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; eight or ten, or even twenty are killed at every discharge. . . . I have seen several hundreds destroyed in this manner in the course of a few hours.”

John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography, or An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America (Edinburgh: A. Black [et al.], 1831), vol. 1, p. 136.

This species is now extinct. See article from National Audubon Society.

A specimen of this species, collected by Audubon, is housed within the collections of the Natural History Museum in London.