09/26/2026
Interesting story of parakeets that uses to live in MO, even spotted around Boonville. Thanks to The Mud Lark for the story!
THE CAROLINA PARAKEET IN PIONEER MISSOURI’
BY DANIEL MCKINLEY
THE colorful Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) was among
the many species of birds found by early travelers in Missouri. These
screeching, sociable birds, the individuals almost waggish in their demeanor,
the flocks resplendent in their gay feathers, brightened many a mans ’ day.
As with the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), this species is now
only a part of history. Except for a few museum specimens, the only records
remaining of these delightful birds are in the vigorous prose of numerous
diaries kept by people who saw them.
Widmann (1907:113-116) wrote a good account of the parakeet in Missouri.
I have summarized his findings in each region of the state, for his
important work is no longer freely available. Otherwise, all reports have
been arranged chronologically for each region of the state. Records for
marginal counties of states bordering Missouri have been included, to make
the picture as complete as possible.
French explorers recorded the earliest observations on parakeets in the
Missouri area, but some of their reports are too general to be precisely placed;
others apply to the bird in a general way in all its range. Many such interesting
reports, besides the ones I have used, may be consulted in Wrights valuable historical review (1912).
Two general comments by early geographers are interesting, for they indicate
something of the attention parakeets had from hardheaded pioneers and
something of the status of the parakeets in the lore of the day. Alphonso Wetmore (1837:3&31) wrote in the 1830s: ’ “The paroquet found in Missouri deserves notice, as peculiar in character and attractive in its plumage.
This is a bird strongly resembling the green parrot in colour and form; and
it is reported of them, that at night they repose within the cavity of a hollow tree, hanging by their curved Roman nose-beaks. This report may require confirmation.”
Just previous to Wetmore,Schoolcraft, in a list of Missouri
birds, wrote (1819:37) : “The parakeet is a beautiful bird; it is a kind of parrot; its colours are green, yellow, and red, all bright colours, and it is a pleasing sight to see a flock of them suddenly wheel in the atmosphere, and
light upon a tree; their gaudy colours are reflected in the sun with the brilliance of the rainbow: they are a noisy bird, but their notes are disagreeable.”
It is not clear to what extent Schoolcraft based his description upon personal observations or information collected in Missouri, for the only place on his 1818-1819 trip that he specifically mentioned seeing the birds was on the Mississippi River, above Brazeau (“Obrazo”) Creek, July 16, 1818: “We
frequently meet the paroquet on the banks of the river, and have passed several large flocks to-day. This is a kind of parrot, a beautiful bird, which
is very common in Louisiana, Missouri, and Kentucky” (ibid.:232)
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
Some of the early Mississippi Valley observations summarized here undoubtedly
were meant to apply to either or both banks of the river. In July,
1673, Joliet wrote (Thwaites, 1896-1901, 58:99) that near the mouth of the
Illinois River, “Parroquets fly in flocks of 10 to 12.” And the same summer,
above the mouth of the St. Francis River (Tennessee side?), he remarked:
“We killed a little parroquet, one half of whose head was red, The other half
and The neck yellow, and The whole body green” (ibid., 59:149-151). Charlevoix
thought the parakeets he saw on the Illinois River (north-central Illinois)
in September, 1721, only stragglers at that time of year, although he
stated that on the Mississippi they were found at all seasons (Charlevoix,
1923, 2:189-190). That this was true, at least for the winter as far north
as Quincy, Illinois (opposite Marion-Lewis county line, Missouri), is suggested
by a traders ’ reminiscences of 1800-01: “The long Winter, from
November until Spring, had to be worn out; and I did my share of rambling
with my gun, shooting paroquets, picking and eating pecans, and breaking
through the ice with narrow escapes” (Anderson, 1882 : 149) . From nearby
Pike County, Illinois, came the assertion, undated as to season but probably
referring to the 1830s, ’ that “Of the parrot . . . there are great numbers . . .”
(Burlend, 1936:98) .
Other Mississippi River records can be considered winter observations.
Probably referring to his 1810 visit to Missouri (if a first-hand observation),
Nuttall (1832:546) wrote that the parakeet was “so far hardy as to make its
appearance, commonly in the depth of winter, along the woody banks of the
Ohio . . . and Mississippi and Missouri around St. Louis . . . when nearly
all other birds have migrated.” On the Ohio, just above its mouth, Audubon
found parakeets in December, 1810 (Audubon, 1942:152) : “The large sycamores
with white bark formed a lively contrast with the canes beneath them;
and the thousands of parroquets, that came to roost in their hollow trunks
at night, were to me objects of interest and curiosity.”
The distribution of the parakeet in the Mississippi Valley seemed to be
well known, for Drake (1815:118-119) d escribed the bird as resident “constantly
along the Mississippi, Ohio, and their tributary rivers, as far north as
39”30, ’ and is seen occasionally up to 42O.”
Not far from the place where Schoolcraft saw parakeets in July, 1818
(quoted above), Peale (1946-47:157) noted on June 2, 1819, when just
above Cape Girardeau, that “parrakeets are still to be seen.” About the same
time, Estwick Evans (1819:306), presumably referring to the Tennessee shore, but in the latitude of southeastern Missouri, told of the geese, ducks,
and swans that he saw in the Mississippi where “numerous paroquets occupy
the trees on its banks. . . . they go in flocks, and their notes are rapid, harsh,
and incessant. It is remarkable, that this bird is subject to a disease resembling
apoplexy.” (The possibility of “apoplexy” is not too remote; see the
interesting account of “Doodles,” the pet Carolina Parakeet belonging to Paul
Bartsch (1952) .)
Paul-Wilhelm (1835:145; Bek transl., page 155) saw parakeets in the deep
woods at the mouth of the Ohio in April, 1523 (Illinois side) ; their cries
were rivaled by the noise of five species of woodpeckers.
Timothy Flint recorded several personal observations on parakeets during
his descent of the Ohio in 1816, just before his travels in the Missouri region
began. Toward the lower end of the Ohio he remarked how his “children
contemplated with unsated curiosity the flocks of parroquets fluttering among
the trees, when we came near the shore” (Flint, 1826:84). And of the Mississippi
Valley, he wrote (1828, 1:lOS; 1832, 1:71-72) :
This is a bird of the parrot class, seen from latitude 40" to the gulf of Mexico. Its
food is the fruit of the sycamore, and its retreat in the hollow of that tree; and is a
very voracious bird, preying on . . . all kinds of fruit. They fly in large flocks, and are
seen in greatest numbers before a storm, or a great change in the weather. They have
hooked, ivory bills, a splendid mixture of burnished gilding and green on their heads,
and their bodies are a soft, and yet brilliant green. Their cry, as they are flying, is
shrill and discordant. They are said to perch, by hanging by their bill to a branch.
When they are taken, they make battle, and their hooked bill pounces into the flesh
of their enemy. They are very annoying to fruit orchards, and in this respect a great
scourge to the farmer. We have seen no bird of the size, with plumage so brilliant;
and they impart a singular magnificance to the forest prospect, as they are seen darting
through the foliage, and among the white branches of the sycamore.
Esthetically, this view is hard to reconcile with Flints ’ bald statement (1828,
2:73), in reference to Missouri: “The beautiful parroquet frequents the
sycamore bottoms, and poorly compensates by the extreme beauty of its
plumage for the injury it does the orchard and garden fruits.”
Flints ’ sentiment on the destructiveness of parakeets was echoed by John
Mason Peck (1831:50), who discussed the birds of the central Mississippi
Valley : “the paroquette, with its fine plumage, annoys the orchards and gardens”;
but he later modified his stand somewhat (Peck, lS53:34) : “It annoys
the orchards by eating the fruit . . . but its favorite food is the seeds of the
cocklebur, which it devours greedily. And, . . . it may be the farmer receives
as much benefit in the destruction of this annoying w**d as will compensate
the loss of his apples.”
On the Mississippi, above the Ohio, in March, 1833, Maximilian saw “trees
quite covered with these beautiful birds” (Wied, 1857:104). It was also in
this region that a Lutheran pioneer, on his way to establish a colony in Missouri in the winter of 183&39, saw parakeets (Graebner, 1919:14). Eifrig
placed the event either in Kentucky or in Mississippi County, Missouri, since
it is not clear which side of the river the man was on. While on a hunt on
“a large and beautiful farm,” a party “hunted a small species of Parrot, of
which many were killed. They made a savory dish” (Eifrig, 1929). Baird
(1858:68) listed an undated specimen from Cairo, Illinois, just across the
Mississippi from southeastern Missouri, presented to the National Museum
by Kennicott. Pindar (1925 :86) heard that parakeets were occasional visitors
to Fulton County, Kentucky, at the mouth of the Ohio, until 1878. Since
relatively little is known of the parakeet in the Mississippi Valley above St.
Louis (other than observations of Anderson and Burlend already quoted),
it is worth remarking that Smith and Parmalee (1955:36) report, on the
authority of T. E. Musselman, a sight record of a flock of parakeets in Adams
County, Illinois, about mid-April, 1884. That is a late date for that area.
NORTHERN MISSOURI
North Missouri records for the parakeet are few. Widmann (1907:115)
quoted the observations of Hoy who found the birds numerous in Grand
River Valley, Livingstone County, in May, 1854 (Hoy, 1865). Trippe heard
in 1872 that flocks of the birds had been known in extreme southern Iowa
(Decatur County), but was not able to learn exact dates (Trippe, 1873 :233).
MISSOURI VALLEY
Among early travelers on the Missouri River who recorded parakeets,
Widmann cited Townsend ( 1839 : 131)) who saw them at Boonville, April 8,
1834; Wied (in the German edition of his Travels, 183941, 1:261, 263, 272-
273), who reported them from Boonville westward in April, 1833, and near
St. Charles in May, 1834 (ibid., 2:361) ; Audubon (Audubon and Coues,
1898, 1:468, 469, 470, 476; 2:173), wh o saw several flocks and collected
some birds in May and again in October, 1843; Hoy (1865)) who killed one
parakeet April 21, 1854, at Boonville; and Hayden (1862:154), who supplied
general information on the species in the lower Missouri as a whole for
1855-57. Widmann also presented previously unpublished records from
Platte County, where the last birds were seen in the early 1850s; ’ from Warren
County, where the last report was 1867; and Franklin County, where the
last known date was 1865. From the Missouri Valley, also, came one of Widmanns
’ last reports of the parakeet: Atchison County, Kansas, across the
Missouri River from Platte County, in 1904 (Widmann, 1907:116).
Lewis and Clark saw the parakeet in 1804. Clark noted in his journal
June 26 at the mouth of the Kansas River: “I observed a great number of
Parrot queets this evening” (L ewis and Clark, 1904, 1:59). And a note
by Clark (ibid., 6:122) said: “Parotqueet is seen as high as the Mahar [Omaha Indian] Village”-that is, to near the present town of Homer, Dakota
County, Nebraska (Swenk, 1934:55).
The next record that I have is the substantial contribution of Peale, who
ascended the Missouri with the Long expedition in the summer of 1819. He
“heard the cries of a flock of parrakeets” when only a short distance up the
Missouri River on June 1. Traveling overland north of the Missouri, near
the end of June, in St. Charles or Montgomery County, he wrote: “In what
few bottoms we have come through we saw turkeys and heard the screech of
parrakeets.” Parakeets abounded in the “buttonwood” (sycamore) forests
on Loutre Island in the Missouri at the Montgomery-Warren County line,
and they were still “numerous” near Cedar creek at the Callaway-Boone
County line, Franklin, Howard County, and near Ft. Osage (now Sibley,
Jackson County) (Peale, 194647:162, 267, 268, 270, 273, 275, 282). Peale
reached Ft. Osage on August 1.
Paul-Wilhelm, an observant German nobleman, walked and paddled up the
Missouri Valley in the summer of 1823. Just before reaching the Gasconade
River, June 1, he noted (1835:221; Bek transl., p. 234) : “For several days
I had hardly heard the song of a single wild bird. Only the piercing cries of
flocks of restless parrots and the occasional hammering of a red-headed woodpecker
broke the deathlike silence.” About the middle of June, he walked
opposite Tabo Creek (that is, in Carroll or Ray County) (ibid.:254; Bek
transl., p. 268) : “The great amount of game, especially the great number of
turkeys, and the sight of countless birds, especially the great flocks of parrots,
as also the splendid luxuriant trees, together with the incomparable fragrance
of the linden trees in full bloom, all these things would have repaid me amply
for the strenuous foot-journey, if my attention had not been diverted in a
painful manner by countless insects.” By the end of June, Paul-Wilhelm
(ibid.:246; Bek, p. 279) was above Ft. Osage when he observed: “Both
banks are low, and the left was very sparsely settled. I do not recall ever
having seen so many parrots in one place. When I shot one of these from
a tree on which hundreds of these birds were sitting, the others did not fly
away, but only made a horrible noise. The same is true if they sight a bird
of prey. The flesh of these parrots is tough and black. Fish like it, however,
and so it is used for bait.” Parakeets were also seen (ibid.:274; Bek transl.,
p. 289) above Little Platte River, Platte County, and “great flocks” of them
were seen near present St. Joseph in mid-July (ibid. :278; Bek transl., p. 294) .
Duden saw parakeets in the winter of 1825, in Warren County; but in his
letters of two years’ residence, he mentioned them only once. They were
destructive in orchards, he wrote a friend; “in particular, they hurl themselves
in swarms upon apples” (Duden, 1829:93). It is not plain if he based his
statement of their destructiveness on personal observation. There is another record of the species from the same region at that time, for Bernhard saw
several parakeets in the forests of “large and very thick sycamores” near St.
Charles in April, 1826 (Bernhard, 1828, 2:99).
Beginning the decade of the 1830s, ’ Ferris saw parakeets just west of
Franklin in February, 1830 (Ferris, 194O:lO) : “Near the village we met
with innumerable flocks of paroquets . . . whose beautiful plumage of green
and gold flashed above us like an atmosphere of gems.” J. T. Irving saw
parakeets on the Missouri at Leavenworth in August, 1833 (Irving, 1955 :25).
They were plentiful at Independence in April, 1834 (Townsend, 1839:139) ;
while, in June of the same year, Sir Charles Augustus Murray (1839, 1:
184), when just west of Leavenworth, exercised his fowling-piece upon the
only feathered things present, “a small flock of green Perroquets.” Unlike
Paul-Wilhelm, he found them palatable. A species of parrot “that fly in
droves” was reported from near Columbia about 1835 by the wife of the
Boone County pioneer, Lenoir; “. . . they are not so large but their plumage
brighter-we intend getting some to tame; if you can ketch one and handle
it some it will not leave you” (Atherton, 1943-44:290). Count Arese saw
several flocks of parakeets in the Ft. Leavenworth-St. Joseph area in summer,
1837 (Arese, 1934:67).
In a remarkably beautiful tribute to the parakeets that had “ceased to come
to central Missouri since many years,” Gert Goebel, a German immigrant,
wrote of the species in early Franklin County. I feel that the account deserves
full quotation (from Goebel, 1877; Bek transl., 1919-25, 16:549-550) :
Until the later thirties great flocks of paroquets came into our region every fall and
frequently remained till the following spring. They were a small variety, about the size
of a dove. They were bright green in color, and their heads were orange colored. These
flocks of paroquets were a real ornament to the trees stripped of their foliage in the
winter. The sight was particularly attractive, when such a flock of several hundred had
settled on a big sycamore, when the bright green color of the birds was in such marked
contrast with the white bark of the trees, and when the sun shone brightly upon these
inhabited tree tops, the many yellow heads looked like so many candles.
This sight always reminded me vividly of a kind of Christmas tree, which was used
by the poorer families in my native city [Germany]. A few weeks before Christmas a
young birch tree was set in a pail of water. In the warm room it soon began to produce
delicate leaves. When on Christmas eve such a tree was decorated with gilded and
silvered nuts and with apples and candies, it did not look unlike one of these birdcovered
tree tops, only these enormous Christmas trees of the forest looked vastly more
imposing than the little birch in the warm room.
As the settlements increased and the forests were more and more cleared away, these
birds ceased to come. The few old settlers of the days, when the paroquets frequented
these parts, feel just as little at home as those beautiful birds did; they long for peace
and quiet, whether above the earth or beneath, it does not matter.
(It is interesting that Bek, editor and translator of Goebel and Duden,
was impressed by Goebels ’ eloquent testimony; he had considered Dudens remarks on parakeets [cited above] as a flight of the latters ’ Romantic imagination:
Bek had lived 30 years in Missouri without seeing any parakeets!
[Bek, 1919-25, 16:550].)
On the Missouri Valley trip in 1843, Audubon gave but casual attention
to parakeets in Missouri. On May 7 and 8, 1843, near the northwestern
corner of the state, he wrote in his journal (Audubon and Coues, 1898, 1:
476) : “Indigo birds [Passerina cyanea] and Parrakeets plentiful. . . . We
saw Parrakeets and many small birds, but nothing new or very rare.” Parakeets
and Indigo Buntings in the same breath! (Widmann notices some other
Audubon references.) In his journal of the Audubon trip, Edward Harris
(1951:55) noted that the first parakeets were seen at Boonville, April 29
(not Independence, where the first ones were killed [Audubon and Coues,
1898, 1:468] ) . The Harris group is reported to have procured 13 parakeets
on the trip upriver and eight on the passage down the Missouri; of these, 10
apparently fell to Harris as his share (Harris, 1951:207, 210, 211). This
must refer only to parakeets preserved as museum specimen skins, for Audubon
wrote that at least 17 parakeets were killed near St. Joseph on May 4
(Audubon and Coues, 1898, 1:470).
J. N. Baskett, while unfortunately giving no specific records, summed up
the situation for about 1850 (Lewis and Clark, 1904, 6:122) : “The parroquet
has now practically been exterminated throughout the West; but it was
found in abundance in the region of Jefferson City, Missouri (and probably
even farther down the river), up to the middle of the nineteenth century.”
(This was written about 1900.)
There are two records of the parakeet from central and western Missouri
in the 1850s ’ that bear out Basketts ’ statement. Bruff wrote, on April 21,
1849, a short distance above Jefferson City: “We wooded, on the right bank
Paroquets numerous” (Bruff, 1949:5). Baird (1858:68) listed the 12 specimens
of parakeets collected by Warren and Hayden (Hayden, 1862:154) on
April 24 and 25, 1856, on or near “Bald Island,” Nebraska, near Atchison
County (Swenk, 1934:56). In th is area, near Brownsville, Nemaha County,
Nebraska, an abundance of parakeets still survived a few years later: “I
remember one season some young men raised a hundred or more of them for
sale, sending them to other states. During the year 1866, or thereabout, they
all suddenly disappeared, and never since to my knowledge have been seen. . . .
Their nesting places were in the hollows of old trees on the island referred to”
(about 10 miles above Brownsville) (F urnas, 1902). This report is probably
the nearest approach to a genuine nesting record for the Carolina Parakeet
in the Missouri region.
From central Missouri, where the parakeet had been so often seen in the
1820s ’ and 1830s, ’ a correspondent informed Cooke (1888:124) that they were still present at Fayette in 1884-85, but were nearly extinct. The species
was included in 1883 without comment in the contemporary fauna of Howard
and Chariton counties (Anon., 1883:389-390). (Of some 70 county and
other regional Missouri histories that I have examined, this and the confused
parakeet reference in the Dunklin County history [Smyth-Davis, 18961
listed elsewhere are the only accounts of the parakeet that I found [McKinley,
19601.)
The bird had been abundant at one time about Kansas City, according to
Harris (1919:270). He recorded a specimen then in the Kansas City Public
Library, taken by Bryant in 1894, and remarked further: “In some unaccountable
manner a lone bird strayed into the Courtney [Jackson County]
bottoms in 1912 and was observed by Bush for several weeks before it finally
disappeared” (ibid.). If the latter record is correct (and Bush seems to have
been an active and reliable naturalist), it is the last date, by several years,
for the parakeet in Missouri. The A merican Ornithologists’ Union (1957 :
267) cautiously lists this as “possibly an escaped cage bird,” but mentions
as the last reported kill for the region a parakeet taken opposite Platte County,
at Potter, Atchison County, Kansas, in August, 1904 (see Widmann, 1907:
116; Remsburg, 1906; and Anon., 1906).
SOUTHERN MISSOURI
The parakeet is mentioned only once in the county histories of southern
Missouri (actually, this relatively poor section of the state has had few histories
written on its counties) ; that is a puzzling reference to the bird at an
early date in Dunklin County (Smyth-Davis, 1896:25). That parakeets did
occur in that area is confirmed by Featherstonhaughs ’ observations made in
early November, 1834, while he was in what is now Butler County. He saw
the first cane (Arundinaria), and then remarked: “We had also other indications
of a Southern latitude here: small flocks of parroquets were wheeling
and screaming about in the bright sun, and showing their brilliant colours
to the greatest advantage” (Featherstonhaugh, 1844:83).
In May, 1840, Tixier (1940:106) saw huge flocks of parakeets in the
“points” of forest along prairie streams between Independence and Harrisonville
in western Missouri. Later, in August, he saw them near the mouth of
the Osage, as he returned by boat down that river to St. Louis (ibid. :279).
He was by then in fairly well settled, cleared land along the Osage River.
Widmann (1907:116) reported Merriams ’ second-hand record from Stone
County in the autumn of 1891 (Merriam, 1892). Both the map of Hasbrouck
(1891) and Butlers ’ distribution data (1892:53) indicated that the Oklahoma
population of parakeets reached almost to or quite into Missouri in the early
1890s. ’ Nice (1931 :lOl-102) listed several reports for northeastern Okla282 THE WILSON BULLETIN September 1960
Vol. 72, No. 3
TABLE 1
RECORDS OF THE CAROLINA PARAKEET IN MISSOURI
Occurrences recorded by month
January 0
February 1
March 1
April 8
May 4
June 6
July 4
August 3
September 0
October 1
November 1
December 1
Occurrences recorded only by seaxm
Spring 1
Summer 7
Autumn 2
Winter 5
“All Seasons” 2
Occurrences for which there ore
no specific seasonal data
13
homa, but she had, however, no specific records from counties bordering
Missouri. Widmann reported a final sight record from Stone County, Missouri,
in July, 1905 (Widmann, 1907:116).
DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY
There is no lack of reliable, even eloquent, testimony on the abundance of
the Carolina Parakeet in Missouri, at least for the broad river-bottom forests
along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Travelers who saw no other creatures
(or, if they did, thought them unworthy of their journals) wrote of the
magnificence of flocks of parakeets they saw in the state, both in winter and
in summer (spring and summer records predominate; see Table 1). A pioneer
woman wrote about them in her letters; a German settler cherished their
memory; preachers dwelt on their beauty. They were certainly common into
the 1840s; ’ Audubons ’ party shot them without concern in 1843. Widmann
gave the 1850s ’ as the decade of the last common flocks in Missouri, but there
were some later congregations, apparently even colonial nestings, in the
region into the 1860s ’ (Furnas) . Probably the last Missouri specimen of
which there is record was taken at Kansas City in 1894, but there were sight
records in or near Missouri for 1904,1905, and 1912. No nests were recorded
from Missouri, although several observers claimed in a general way that
sycamore trees were used for both nesting and roosting. Furnass ’ account is
the best nesting record for the region, I believe.
The birds’ passing is a mystery. They were undoubtedly held in disfavor
for their destruction of fruit, but that point ought not to be overemphasized.
They never appeared on a bounty list, and they were almost totally ignored
in the county histories. Surely, if they were ever a scourge to agriculture, their names would have appeared more commonly on the pages of these two
records of materialism and manifest destiny. Some were probably shot for
food or other uses, but the number could not have been great. More often,
perhaps, they were shot because they furnished an easy, returning target.
Primeval numbers of parakeets are not easy to guess at: they were noisy,
colorful, and conspicuous birds that went about in flocks; the extent of their
wanderings is not known. That is, probably anyone with an eye for birds
would see them; and, if they wandered very much, one flock might be seen
by people in different areas. Perhaps they had a liking for the kind of habitat
created by man, at least for purposes of feeding; if so, the lack of a general
sentiment in pioneer society for their protection may have been their downfall.
The possibility that disease was responsible cannot be ruled out, but
except for a suggestion of “apoplexy,” I have no evidence for it.
Since parakeets used hollow trees for roosting and nesting, there may have
been connections between the disappearance of the birds and the wholesale
cutting of “bee trees.” Th e E uropean honey bee barely preceded the American
white man in invading the central parts of America, and it became extremely
abundant within a short time. I am convinced, by numerous references collected
during a search through early literature, that the magnitude of destruction
of hollow trees by “bee hunters” in search of honey and wax is little
appreciated. What effect, if any, that had on the parakeet is unknown. Perhaps
the bees themselves discouraged nesting and roosting flocks of parakeets.
Reasons for their decline are made doubly difficult to evaluate by the lack
of knowledge of the breeding biology, habitat, and social requirements of
the species.
Excellent reviews of the parakeet in Oklahoma (Nice, 1931) and Nebraska
(Swenk, 1934) have been published. Nothing has been added to parakeet
literature in Kansas since the time of Goss (1891). In Iowa and Illinois the
relatively scanty material can be found in Anderson (1907)) DuMont (1933))
Cory (1909), and Smith and Parmalee (1955). The best review of the bird
in early Arkansas is in Howells ’ paper (1911). The collected records for
Kentucky and Tennessee so far published are not exhaustive and much remains
to be done in the case of Illinois, Arkansas, and Kansas.
