Ig4 MrsciCAPiD.?;. 



Australia, differs from all the eastern birds in its extremely narrow white forehead, and may 

 probably indicate a second species." Later on Dr. Sharpe separated the examples from 

 Western Australia as distinct on account of the smaller white frontal marking and less extent 

 of white on the wings. I am inclined to agree with Gould, however, that the Scarlet-breasted 

 Robin of Western Australia is not a distinct species, but at the most a western race of 

 Pdrceca leggii. 



The same variation in size of the white marking on the forehead may also be observed in 

 P. pha-nicca. The largest and smallest-capped adult males of both species in the Australian 

 Museum collection, were obtained by Mr. R. Grant at Lithgow, on the Blue Mountains, where 

 both species are numerous, and where he has found them breeding. 



The note of the Scarlet-breasted Robin is sweet and low, and is usually uttered when tlie 

 little songster is perched on the top of a stump, a fence, or a large stone. It may be heard 

 to advantage just before daylight, especially in a clearing in a mountain valley, which often 

 fairly resounds with the notes of these birds as they answer one another from stump to stump 

 where they are perched. Its food consists of insects, principally small moths, butterflies, 

 beetles, flies, and their larvap, also worms procured about cultivation paddocks and grass lands. 

 It is an extremely familiar bird, and enters orchards and gardens freely in search of food. 



The nest is a round open cup-shaped structure, outwardly composed of strips of bark, 

 mosses, and dried grasses, securely woven and held together, the inside being thickly and 

 warmly lined with cow-hair, opossum fur, feathers, or other soft material; the downy covering 

 of the freshly-budded fern fronds being more often used when built in mountain ranges. 

 The rim of the nest is thick and rounded, and externally the structure is lightly coated with 

 spider's web, to which is attached small pieces of bark, charred wood, or lichens, the 

 decorations varying with the surroundings of the nest. .\n a\erage nest measures externally 

 three inches and a half in diameter by two inches and a half in depth, the inner cup measuring 

 two inches in diameter by one inch and a half in depth. The situation selected for the nest 

 is varied; sometimes it is placed on the top of a horizontal branch or in the forked limb of a 

 low tree. .\ favourite situation is between a piece of projecting bark and the stem of a tree, 

 or on the roughened wood inside the charred trunk or a hollow stump or tree. In South 

 Gippsland, I have frequently found the nest of this species by tapping on the hollow trunk of 

 some burnt out giant of the forest, or by watching the bird fly into one of the apertures made 

 by fire in the bole of a large tree. Whatever site is chosen, the exterior of the nest is 

 made to closely assimilate its environment. A nest of this species in the .Australian Museum 

 collection, taken by Mr. J. Gabriel at Bayswater, Victoria, on the 15th November, 1894, is 

 placed in a very well concealed situation. It is formed in a small blackened cavity, burnt 

 out of the thin stem of a Mountain Musk (Aster argophylla), and is outwardly constructed 

 of very fine strips of the inner bark of a Eucalyptus, intermingled with the soft downy covering 

 of the freshly budded fronds of a tree fern, and thickly lined inside with opossum fur. Only 

 one side and the rim of the nest are visible, which are ornamented with small fragments of 

 charred wood, attached by means of cobweb. Usually the nesting site does not exceed ten or 

 twelve feet from the ground, fre(iuently it is within hand's reach, but in rare instances it may 

 be found at a height of thirt)' or forty feet. 



From Dr. L. Holden's MS. notes, I extract the following: — "On the nth November, 

 1886, I found a nest of the Scarlet-breasted Robin in a paddock at Circular Head, Tasmania, 

 containing three hard-set eggs. It was built at the junction of a forked horizontal branch 

 of a large isolated box-tree at a height of eleven feet from the ground, and was a very 

 neat and well concealed cup-shaped structure. Exteriorly it was formed of narrow strips of 



• "The Ibis," 1899, p. 303. 



