THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
(trees felled in clearing land). Dec. 15, 1907, young birds still in nest and 
many fledged, most of them fledge out in December. This species occurs in 
much less numbers thirty miles east of Broome Hill.” 
Gould did not meet with this species personally so that we have nothing 
of interest in his account. 
A. W. Milligan in the Emu , Vol. II., p. 75, 1902, giving the results of 
trips to the Margaret River, South-west Australia, observed : “ This bird is 
called the ‘ Rosella ’ in Western Australia. I saw many of them on my first 
visit, principally in the Karri forests. I was fortunate one day in seeing a 
veritable battle royal between two pairs of birds. One pair had selected a 
spout in a high karri tree as a suitable place for nesting. Another pair in 
search of such a place sought to occupy the selected home, which naturally 
was highly resented by the lawful owners. At a given signal, or apparently 
so, the male and female bird of each pair flew straight at the other, and, 
meeting in mid-air, fought with great fury, using beaks, wings, and feet, and 
clamouring greatly. When exhausted each pair returned to its tree. After 
a short respite the engagement was renewed with equal fury and noise, but 
temporary exhaustion resulted in another rest. After a series of these 
engagements and restful intervals the intending dispossessors drew off, or 
more correctly speaking, flew off, vanquished, which gave occasion for much 
more clamour and psittacine thanksgiving by the victors.” 
In the next volume (p. 225, 1904), the same writer added : “ On a trip 
to the Wongan Hills, West Australia, we obtained three specimens of Platycercus 
icterotis. I was in hopes when shooting them they would prove Count 
Salvadori’s Platycercus xanthogenys , having cherished the notion for many 
years past that this latter species, which up to the present is only represented 
in the cabinet by one skin, will be found in one of the dry inland areas where 
the eucalypts are not found. This notion was founded on the theory of 
protective coloration. The green colouring on the mantle of P. icterotis (the 
absence of which establishes P. xanthogenys ) would in such areas make its 
possessor always conspicuous, and in consequence an easy prey for its enemies, 
and in time would lead to its extermination. Birds of the same species with- 
out such colouring and less conspicuous would have an infinitely better chance 
of surviving. Two of the birds shot were fledgelings. I saw another adult 
bird entering a hollow in a salmon gum with food in its mouth, evidently for 
its young.” 
Whitlock, writing of the birds of the Stirling Ranges, in the Emu, X., 
p. 314, 1911, commented: “ I also secured a clutch of four eggs of Platycercus 
icterotis — the local ‘ Rosella.’ The entrance to the nest was on the top of a 
thick horizontal limb of a white gum, at a height of about 40 feet. The 
