MELANODRYAS. 



171 



ear-coverts dark brown, loitli dull irhite shaft streaks .- throat, fore-neck, and breast pale brownish- 

 grey ; abdomen, vent, aii.d under tail-coverts white. 



Distribution. — Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, 

 N'ictoria, South Australia, Central Australia, Western and North-western Australia. 



^"I^HE Hooded, or Black and White Robin as it is more commonly called, is distributed in 

 -L faxourable situations over the greater portion of the Australian continent. Considerable 

 variation e.xists in the size of this species, specimens from Eastern Australia being larger than 

 examples from Western Australia. Again, specimens from humid mountainous districts are 

 usually larger than those found only a few hundred miles away on arid and sparsely timbered 

 plains. The above described specimens were collected by me at Wellington, New South Wales, 

 the wing-measurement of other adults obtained at the same time varying from 3-95 to 4-1 inches, 

 and those of the females from 375 to 3-85 inches. These are the average measurements also of 

 specimens obtained in the open forest lands about Seven Hills and Blacktown, near Sydney, 

 and in the mountain ranges in the lUawarra District. The wing measurement of an adult 

 male, collected at Coombi, in the Western District of New South Wales, by the late Mr. 

 K. H. Bennett, is only 3-65 inches. The wing measurements of an immature male and female 



obtained with their nest and eggs near Bourke 

 in 1876, are respectively 3'65 and 3-6 inches. 

 The nest and eggs of this pair of birds were 

 described by me under the name of Melanodryas 

 picata,'' but since I have had an opportunity of 

 examining the skins, I find that they are only 

 young birds of M. bicoloi', that were breeding 

 before attaining full adult livery, which is of 

 common occurrence in this species. The average 

 wing measurement of adult males from South 

 and Western Australia varies from 3-6 to 37 

 inches, intergrading completely with the north- 

 western and northern race, separated by Gould 

 under the name of M. picata. Typical specimens 

 of the latter from Derby, collected by Mr. E. J. 

 Cairn and the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower, vary 

 in wing measurement from 3-5 to 3-55 inches. 

 Dr. Sharpe, in his description of M. bicolor, in the "Catalogue of the Birds in the British 

 Museum," gives the wing measurement of the adult male as 37 inches. To M. picata, Gould, 

 he accords subspecific rank on account of its smaller size, and states that it is " distinguished 

 by the less amount of black on the tail, and the broader edging of white to the inner 

 secondaries. In the outer tail-feather the white extends round the black, and is carried along 

 the whole length of the outer web." The characters pointed out by Dr. Sharpe, however, 

 have no specific or subspecific value, for they are only those of a newly moulted bird, and 

 may be seen in examples from both Eastern and Western Australia, the white gradually 

 decreasing until it is nearly or entirely lost just prior to moult. Of two adult males of the 

 smaller race, obtained by Mr. E. J. Cairn, at Derby, one has the tips only of the secondaries 

 white, and the apical portion of all the lateral tail feathers entirely black ; the other, an adult 

 male in the moult, has the tips of all and the outer webs of the inner secondaries broadly 

 margined with white, the apical portion of the old lateral tail-feathers on one side entirely 

 black, and the four outer new feathers on the other side broadly tipped with white, which 



HOODED ROBIN. 



Proc Linn. Soc. N.S.W.. 2nd ser., Vol. ii., p. 557 (1S77). 



