breeding Stanley Parrakeeis. 18^ 
llo shooting; at all, as tlie birds leave the region immediately 
after rearing their young, an excuse that is poor at best, but that 
may be considered for the moment. I'rom information available 
it seems that though the doves may forsake the cultivated fields 
they feed in flocks on the desert wherever food is available and 
that large numbers remain until October or later each year. 
The practice of hunting these doves in the nesting se'ison is inex- 
cusable, save in occasional instances where it is necessary to 
protect crops. With the rapid settlement of the country and the 
reclaiming of land under new irrigation projects at present under 
way, the large colonies of the White-winged Doves in the lower 
Gila Valley will disappear. Tlie mesquite groves in which these 
birds nest furnish valuable wood for domestic use and for fence 
posts so that the mesquite monies are being steadily cut away. 
The doves will in consequence be reduced in number as they 
have been elsewhere, near Phoenix and Tucson, but should 
remain fairly common, as scattered pairs will continue to nest 
on the desert and others will take up domiciles in cottonwoods 
and other trees scattered through the cultivated fields and along 
the irrigation ditches. 
Washington, D. C., February i8th, ip20 
C-^-f<> 
Breeding Stanley Parraheets. 
( Platycercus icterotis). 
By Wesley T. Page, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 
The Stanley Parrakeet is well known to most of our 
readers, but for the benefit of those unacquainted with its 
plumage a description had better be given. 
Adult Male. — Head, sides of the neck, and most of the 
undersurface scarlet ; cheeks yellow ; back : the feathers of this 
area are black, broadly margined with green and more or less 
stained with red; wings very similar, but with a black patch on 
the upper coverts, blue on the bend, and the outer margins of 
primaries also blue; rump and upper tail-coverts green; tail: 
central feathers green, bluish near tip and tipped with white, 
outer feathers green at base, then pale blue, with white tips; 
