I ^8 iVESTS A\D EGGS Of AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



However, I have mentioned that the Flame-breasted Robins occasion- 

 ally breed on the mainland. Mr. I. W. De Lany infonns me they 

 breed in the Alpine region of the Omeo district, above the 3,000 feet 

 level. Mr. De Lany kindly sent me a male bird for identification. He 

 has noticed that these Robins moult m December and January, and that 

 immediately afterwards the young males have donned their flaming scarlet 

 breast. 



In the tall timber on the summit of the Dandenongs, my son and 

 Mr. Cluistie Smart noticed two pairs of Flame Robins on the 20th 

 November (1897). One paii- was apparently feeding young in a nest. A 

 bird was shot for identification and for the collection, not, however, of the 

 pan- belonging to the nest. 



In all my lengthened experiences afield during the nesting season 

 I never found a nest of the Flame Robin^ nor do I recollect seeing one 

 foimd on the mainland ; but as soon as I visited Tasmania and the adjacent 

 Island.Sj I foimd the birds in evidence at once, and nesting. 



During the three expeditions of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 

 viz., to King Island, Kent Group, and Furneaux Group, Flame-breasted 

 Robins were identified in each place, while nests and eggs were procured 

 in the two first-mentioned locahties. Especially on Kent Group cUd we 

 enjoy the presence of these homely and pretty birds roimd about our 

 camp. Right menily did they cheer us, especially at early mom, with 

 their antiphonal singing, so to speak, rapidly answering each other from 

 tree-top to tree-tgp, or from rocky eminence to grassy bank. Several 

 nests, with eggs or young, were observed either placed on a bank or in 

 low timber. A photograph taken represented a nest cleft in the side of 

 ,1 blue-gu:n (eucalypt) tree, a few feet from the ground. (See illustration.) 



Breeding months, end of September to December. 



113. — Petececa ehodinogastra. Draper. —(163) 



PINK-BREASTED ROBIN. 



Figure. — Gould: Birds of Australia, fol , vol. iii., pi. i. 

 Reference— Ca.t. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iv., p. 170. 

 Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould: Birds of Australia (1848), also 

 Handbook, vol. i., p. 276 (1865). 



Geograi)hical Distribution. — Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, King 

 Island, and Fhnders Island. 



Nest. — Cup-shaped, well-built, very beautiful and soft ; composed of 

 green moss and decorated outwardly with lichen and spiders' web ; lined 

 inside with fine moss and brown hair-hke substance gathered from fem 

 fronds, sometimes with fiu-. Usually placed in a mossy, forked branch 

 of some small tree in the dense scrub of gullies, or innermost recesses 

 of heavy forest. Dimensions over all, 3 inches by 2^ inches in depth; 

 egg cavity, li^ inches across by IJ inches deep. 



