I was equally unsuccessful in my endeavors to discover the time of incubation or manner of building among these birds. One man assured me that he cut down a large beech-tree, which was hollow, and in which he found the broken fragments of upwards of twenty Paroquet's eggs, which were of a greenish yellow color. The nests, though destroyed in their texture by the falling of the tree, appeared, he said, to be formed of small twigs glued to each other, and to the side of the tree, in the manner of the Chimney Swallow. He added, that if it were the proper season, he could point out to me the weed from which they procured the gluey matter. From all these contradictory accounts nothing certain can be deduced, except that they build in companies, in hollow trees.
Many females deposit their eggs together.
I am of opinion that the number of eggs which each individual lays is two, although I have not been able absolutely to assure myself of this. They are nearly, round, of a rich greenish white. The young are at first covered with soft down, such as is seen on young Owls. It may be remarked that most of the Parrots, whose nidification we are acquainted with, build in hollow trees, or holed banks. The eggs are always white.