PETRCECA. 



169 



following season at Oakleigh. It is an occasional visitant to Melton, and is a common 

 species in the mallee scrubs of the Wimmera District of North-western \'ictoria. Mr. G. A. 

 Keartland met with it during his journeys in Central and \\'estern Australia, and was 

 informed that it occasionally frequents the Fitzroy River and its vicinity in North-western 

 Australia, but he did not meet with it while camped there for several months. 



Dr. W. Macgillivray writes me from South-western New South W'ales: — "The Red- 

 capped Robin is frequently seen in the private gardens in Broken Hill during the winter 

 and early spring months. Out in the open country it is met with in the patches of prickly 

 acacias." 



It is common in the inland portions of South Australia, where Dr. A. M. ^Morgan found it 

 building freely during the latter part of July, and found a nest with two fresh eggs on the 4th 

 August, igoo, at Mount Gunson, about one hundred miles north-west of Port Augusta. 



In some males, both immature and adult, from Eastern and Western .\ustralia, the scarlet 

 feathers of the fore-neck and breast extend on to the chin, and are intermingled with the black 



feathers of the centre of 

 ^ the throat. The extent 

 of white on the wings 

 and tail of both sexes 

 varies, and some adult 

 males have all the quills 

 narrowly tipped with 

 white. Females may 

 often be found breed- 

 ing before assuming the 

 dull red cap on the 

 forehead. The food of 

 this species consists en- 

 tirely of small insects 

 and their larvs. 



The nest internally 

 is a small cup-shaped 

 structure, the outer por- 

 tion varying according 



to the position in which it is built. It is composed of very fine strips or shreds of bark and 

 dried grasses, held together with cobwebs, the inside being lined with cow-hair, opossum or 

 rabbit fur; sometimes a few feathers are intermingled, in others they are lined entirely with 

 soft dried grasses. Externally it is decorated with pieces of lichen, and is usually made to 

 resemble its surroundings. The rim is sometimes thick and rounded, especially when wool 

 is used in the construction of the nest; at other times it is sharp and thin, as shown in the one 

 figured above. .\n average nest measures externally two inches and a quarter in diameter by 

 one inch and three-quarters in depth, the inner cup measuring one inch and a half in diameter 

 by one inch in depth. Sometimes the nest is built in an upright fork, or on the top of a thick 

 horizontal branch; at other times it is placed between several thin forked stems, or built 

 up against the trunk of a tree, and supported by a small twig. One now before me has 

 only one-half of the external portion of the nest visible, the other side being built against a 

 thick fork. Another very beautiful nest, taken by Mr. E. H. Lane on Wambangalang Station, 

 near Dubbo, is built in an unusual position. It is placed inside and near the end of a spout 

 formed by a piece of curled dried bark of a Eucalyptus, that was hanging to the underside of a 

 branch, about nine feet from the ground. Externally it is of irregular shape to fit the piece 



NEST OF RED CAPPED ROBI.N. 



