]6g MUSCICAPID^. 



portion of the abdomen and under tail-coverts ruhite ; bill black ; legs and feet blackish-brown ; ins 

 blackish-brown. Total length in thejiesh oS inches, wing 31, tail 2-25, bill 04, tarsus 8. 



Adult female — General colour above brown, icings and tail dark brown, the former marked 

 with buffy-white, and the latter with white as in the male; on the forehead a small indistinct dull 

 while or buffy-white spot: ear-coverts brown; chin and throat dull white, shaded with brown; 

 remainder of the under surface brown; centre of the abdomen and under tail-coverts dull white. 



Distribution —New South Wales, X'ictoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Islands of Bass Strait. 



ALTHOl'GH very common in the coastal ranges and Blue Mountains in New South 

 Wales, the Flame-breasted Robin is more abundantly distributed throughout Victoria 

 and Tasmania: it is also found in South Australia and on some of the islands of Bass Strait. 

 During the late autumn and winter months it is particularly numerous about newly ploughed 

 lands and on the open plains to the north and west of Melbourne, haunting also the low 

 intersecting stone walls and fences about the Werribee, Keilor, and Maribyrnong. In the 

 latter neighbourhood, for several seasons, a pair used to frequent the trees around my house, 

 arriving at the latter end of April .and remaining until the end of August. They were 

 exceedingly tame, especially the male, and I used to feed them with bread crumbs, which they 

 would readily venture into outhouses to obtain. In the spring and early summer months I found 

 this species breeding in company with the Scarlet-breasted Robin in clearings made in the 

 heavily timbered ranges of South Gippsland. It also breeds on the Blue Mountains in New 

 South Wales, but unlike Pctracca leggii, it is very rarely seen in the neighbourhood of Sydney 

 during the winter months. 



From Victoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland writes:— " Immediately the winter ploughing is 

 started, the Flame-breasted Robins make their appearance, probably attracted by the number 

 of insects and tiieir larvae, which they find in the newly-turned soil. I have counted as many 

 as thirteen bright male birds hopping along a single furrow. .\t what age the adult male 

 assumes his gay attire I am unable to state, but during November, 1891, I saw a pair in the 

 modest garb of the female building their nest at Bayswater, in the Dandenong Ranges. 

 A fortnight later I took three partly incubated eggs from it after seeing both birds again at 

 the nest, which was situated in a slight hollow in a charred stump about fourteen feet from 

 the ground." Mr. A. E. Ivatt also informs me that he found the nests of this species at 

 Glanmire, near Bathurst, in 1896, in which the birds of both sexes were brown, and without 

 any indication of the scarlet breast." 



Mr. A. Zietz, the Assistant Director of the South Australian Museum, writes me:— 

 "On the i2th May, 1901, while out with my son, we saw a number of Petraca pha'uicea 

 scattered over a newly ploughed field, between Modbury and Tea-tree Gully, about ten 

 miles north-east of Adelaide. We also observed this species the previous year about the 

 same time, but not quite so numerous. Somewhat later they all disappeared. One of our 

 Museum collectors, the late Mr. F. W. Andrews, observed Flame-breasted Robins many 

 years ago at Square Waterhole, south of Adelaide. He was under the impression that they 

 bred there, but I never saw the nest or eggs of this species in his or any other collection that 

 were taken in this State." 



Writing from the Western District, Victoria, Dr. W. Macgillivray remarks:— "Towards 

 the end of iVIarch, or early in April, young males and females of Petraca phenceicea first make 

 their appearance in the more open parts of the Hamilton District, the adult males generally 

 following in about a fortnight ; they remain during the winter months and all leave for their 

 nesting grounds before the end of .August. I took a nest of this species in a patch of timber 

 near Portland, on the 12th November; it was placed in a small stunted gum at a height of 

 fifteen feet, and contained two fresh eggs. ' 



