NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



'47 



Mr. North further remarks : — " Tliis bird has a wide range over the 

 Continent of Australia, specimens liaving been procured, together with 

 the nest and eggs, by Mr. James Uamsay, in October, 1876, near Bourke, 

 New South Wales; and last year (1888), both Mr. Cairn and the late 

 Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower obtained several specimens about eighty miles 

 inland from Derby, North-west Australia." 



119.^ — Amaurodryas Petr<f,c\ vittata, Quoy and Gaimard. — (170) 



DUSKY ROBIN. 



FigKi-c— Gould ; Birds of Auslr.-ilia, fol , vol. iii , pi. 8. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iv., p 177. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs.— Gould; Birds of Australia (i8<)8), also 

 Handbook, vol. i, p 286 (1865); North: Austn. Mus Cat. 

 p. io6 (1889). 



Geographical Dintrihution. — Tasmania, King Island, and Fumeaux 

 Group. 



Nest. — Cup-shaped, somewhat large ; outwardly composed of rough dead 

 portions of plants with an admixture of spiders' cocoons and other soft 

 substances, or ciu-ly, wire-Uke rootlets, then with bark (chiefly Melaleuca), 

 and lined inside with fine gi-ass or veiy light-brownish rootlets; sometimes 

 long horse-hairs, fur, or a feather or two are added. Usually situated low 

 in the hoUow of a stump, in a niclie of bark, or at the jimetion where a 

 crop of suckers sprout from the base of a tree, in scnib or forest. 

 Dimen-sions over all, 4 inches by 2| inches in depth ; egg cavity, 2\ inches 

 by 1| inches deep. 



E(j(is. — Clutch, three, occasionally foiu- ; true oval in shape ; texture 

 of shell fine ; siu"face glossy ; colour, unifonn olive-green, of a darker shade 

 round the apex, where are also, in some instances, a splash or two of dai-k- 

 brown. Occasionally a set is a much lighter green in tone, with a wash 

 of brown and blotches of the same colour on the apex. Dimensions in 

 inches of a proper clutch : (1) -9 x 64, (2) -87 x -64, (3) -87 x -63 ; of a set 

 from Flinders Island : (1) -9 x •68, (2) -89 x 66, (3) -88 x '68. 



Observations. — The plain-coloured Dusky Robin appears to be an 

 insular form confined to Ta,smania, King Island, and the Fiuncaux Group, 

 in Bass Strait. Whether it has been found on the mainland opposite is 

 extremely doubtful. Gould, who paid considerable attention to the 

 distribution of this species, never met with it on the Continent of 

 Australia. 



From my Tasmanian notes, 1883, I take : — " Dusky Robin's nest found 

 building in cleft of stump in ranges near ' Ridgeside,' 9th October, 1883. 

 Returned on horseback nine days after, took three eggs. 



" 27th October, 1883. — Again out on horseback, took another Dusky 

 Robin's nest with a similar complement of beautiful greenish eggs." 



