192 Breeding Stanley Parrakeets, 
conquer one's desire for numbers and variety and to allow the 
Stanleys undisturbed possession of the aviary— thus will the best 
results be attained, and it is far better to do one species 
thoroughly well than to have but mediocre success with many. 
I can write feelingly upon this point as my personal weakness 
is fairly well known. 
Personally my acquaintance with ictcrotis is not a 
lengthy one. Till last year, when I acquired an unrelated pair 
from our member, the Marquis of Tavistock, I had only pos- 
sessed odd males at different intervals, which never attempted 
to cross with odd females of other Platycercinae in the same 
aviary. My pair which arrived last autumn were birds of the 
year and not then in full adult brilliance. I put them in an 
aviary (shelter 8ft. x 8ft.. flight 12ft. x loft.) occupied by a cock 
Blossom-head, and a year old Ring-neck (Palaeornis nepalensis). 
Here they settled down and gradually became more brilliant in 
colour, and about July I noticed them pairing for the first time, 
though I had noticed the cock making advances to his mate for 
some weeks previously. I was much occupied at the time 
(thanks to " .BN." etc.) and did not observe much till I missed 
the hen on several occasions and at last searched for her, fearing 
she had escaped, and eventually disturbed her in one of the nest 
barrels, from which, so far as I observed, she did not emerge till 
the young were hatched. I usually gave a hurried walk round 
the aviaries in the early morning, about noon, and again in the 
early evening, and never saw her about during the whole incuba- 
tion period. In due course one young bird appeared, quite 
strong on the wing at once ; two days later another made its exit 
from the barrel, equally strong, and a week later a third 
appeared, but this latter was weakly (rickety), and one morning 
after heavy rain during the night, I found it dead in the flight — 
I had driven it into the shelter at dusk the previous night. 
In the adjoining aviary was a pair of Blue-fronted 
Amazons, which bit, rather badly, at the base of the upper 
mandible, the first young Stanley to leave the nest; fortunately 
this injury was not fatal, and the bird continued to thrive, and 
now (September 6th) the outward signs of the injury have 
practjcally disappeared, This causes mc to remark that 
