176 MUSCICAPID.E 



Wr. Frank Hislop informs me that farther north, in the Bloomfield River District, the 

 Ashy-fronted Robin is only found about the tops of the mountains. The nest is placed in a 

 small lawyer-palm, never more than four or five feet from the ground, and one egg is usually 

 laid for a sitting. Mr. R. Hislop writes me that he did not meet with this species on the 

 Endeavour River, which is only a little farther north. 



The nest is an open structure, roughly formed externally of a few thin twigs, intermingled 

 with skeletons of leaves, wiry rootlets, and the fibre of the lawyer- vine; the inside is cup- 

 shaped, and lined chiefly with the latter material. Externally it is decorated with mosses 

 and large pieces of lichen. .\n average nest measures four inches and a half in outer 

 diameter by four inches in depth; the inner cup two inches and a half in diameter by one 

 inch and an eighth in depth. Several nests now before me, obtained by Messrs. Cairn and 

 Grant during September and October, 1889, are built between the forked stems of a lawyer- 

 vine, or where several vines cross one another; others are placed at the base of the leaves and 

 attached on one side to the upright stems. 



The number of eggs varies in different districts from one to two for a sitting. They are 

 oval in form, some being much swollen at the larger end, others tapering sharply towards the 

 thinner end, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly lustrous. A common type is 

 of a dull creamy-bufT ground colour, which is thickly covered, especially towards the larger end, 

 with indistinct clouded markings of yellowish or pale umber-brown, and somewhat resembling 

 large eggs of Artamits supcniliosiis. Others are of a dull greenish-white ground colour, which is 

 freckled, spotted, and distinctly blotched with different shades of umber, intermingled with 

 similar underlying markings of deep bluish-grey. Some specimens are heavily blotched on 

 the larger end, the remainder of the shell being almost devoid of markings. Although many 

 eggs are found which have the markings uniformly distributed over the shell, they predominate 

 as a rule on the thicker end, where a cap or zone is sometimes formed. A set of two, taken 

 on the i8th September, i88g, measures:— Length (A) 1-05 x 075 inches; (B) 1-07 x 077 

 inches. Another set measures:— (.-X) 0-98x073 inches; (B) 0-96x072 inches. 



September and the four following months, constitute the usual breeding season of this 

 species. 



Poecilodryas cerviniventris. 



BUFF-SIDED ROBIN. 

 Petroica? cerviniventris, Uould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 18.t7, p. l'-21: id, Bd.s. Austr., fol., Suppl., pi. 15 



(1869). 

 Piecilodryas cerviniventris, Gould, Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 288 (1865); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. 



Brit. Mus., Vol. IV., p. Ui (1879); North, Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., 2nd ser., Vol. XXV IL, 



p. 34.3 (1902). 

 Adult male — General colour above brown, with a slight ochraceous wash on the back, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts : upper iving-coverts blackish-brown, the greater series tipped with white and 

 having a large ivhite patch on the centre of their inner webs; quills blackish-brown, paler towards 

 tlie tips, and crossed with a broad while band near the base, the primaries with a very small white 

 tip and a narrow white mark on the apical portion of their outer webs, the latter increasing to a 

 broad white margin and tip on the outer secondaries ; the remainder of the secondaries tipped with 

 white except the innermost feathers, which are like the back : tail feathers blackish-brown tipped with 

 white, the tips gradually decreasing in size towards the central pair; head and hind neck dull 

 chocolate-brown ; a broad white stripe extends from the nostril over the eye; sides of the face blackish- 

 brown; chin and throat white; fore-neck and breast grey; sides of the body fawn colour, becoming 



