■VESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN lilKDS. 



137 



greeiiisli-whitc, spotted, aud sometimes boldly blotched, more particularly 

 round the apex, with umber and dull grey. Dimeiisious in inches of a 

 proper clutch: (1) 76 x -56, (U) -75 x -56, (3) -75 x -56. 



Dhsirviitions. — The Flamc-bi-easted Robin is well named, for its throat 

 aud breast, more especially in the breeding season, seem aflame with lich 

 scarlet. The rest of the pliunage is smoky or sooty-grey, except a small 

 spot on the forehead, a longitudinal patch ou each wing, aud the under tail 

 coverts, which are white. The female possesses a brownish coat, witli 

 greyish under sui-face. 



The range of tliis splendid Robin extends from South Queensland, 

 where a few indiWduals have been noted, to South Austraha and 

 T;u>niania, and the greatest number are found, during the breeding season 

 it all events, in Tasmania, including many of the islands in Bass Strait. 



On the mainland, ou a dewy April morning, after the first autumnal 

 rains, these Robins appear. How their breasts of flame shine out against 

 the dark clods of newly-ploughed fields ! In our cities they may be seen 

 perched on a fence or clothes -line. 



Mr. J. Burton, on the schooner Grntifudc, when five or six miles oil 

 the land, between Wilson's Promontory and Cape Schanck, 21st April, 

 1896, noticed several (about six) Flame-breasted Robins flying, some of 

 wliich ahghted on the rigging of the vessel. No doubt the little birds were 

 making a voyage from some of the islands to the mainland. 



On the '27th April, 1895, I watched, for a considerable time, a pair- 

 (male and female) of early birds hunting for insects In the rear of our 

 premises, darting from the groimd to the clothes line and thence to the 

 fence, and so on, all the while chirping and chattering, as if to themselves, 

 in their enjoyment. 



On the approach of spring (September) they all disappear as mys- 

 teriously as they arrive. They, no doubt, go to their breeding haunts, 

 which would seem to be chiefly Tasmania aud the intermediate romantic 

 islands, where they love to nest by the sound of the wind and waves. 

 A few remain on the mainland, or retire to breed on the uplands of the 

 great Dividing Range and adjacent spurs. 



The talented author of the Australian Museum " Catalogue of Nests 

 and Eggs " will, perhaps, pardon me for saying that the nest and eggs 

 he received and described from the Malice country need more authentic 

 proof. Moreover, it would be easy to mistake a female Scarlet-breasted 

 Robin (to which species Mr. North's nest and eggs appear to belong) 

 for a female Flame Robin. 



The late Mr. F. W. Andrews, in the Pi'oceedings of the Royal Society 

 of South Australia, vol. vi. (1883), infers he has seen the Flame-breasted 

 Robin breeding in South Austraha, but he most imfortunately discounts 

 the value of the statement by saying, " The peculiar feature in the habits 

 of these birds is, when they have reared their young, say six or eight weeks 

 after their arrival (in April or May, as the case may be),* they make oS 

 ag;un, aud are no more seen until the following season." This means, 

 if I mistake not, that the Robins breed diuing midwinter, which is 

 scarcely correct. 



• The words in parentheses are mine. 



