SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 35 



they scan the neighbourhood for flitting moth or creeping insect, returning 

 after each successful dart to their observation post to flirt their tails in 

 characteristic robin fashion. This bird, forms a typical dainty cup- 

 shaped nest of soft bark and grass, lined with fur, feathers, wool, or hair. 

 When firmly fixed in the fork of a tree and coated on the outside with 

 spiders' web, bits of bark, and lichens, it blends with the surrounding stems 

 in a perfect outline. The eggs are round, pale green, and finely spotted 

 round the apex with brown ; they vary in number from two to four. 



The Scarlet-breasted Robin [Petmca leggii Sharpe). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 279, No. 165 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 122, No. 244. 



The scarlet-breasted Robin is common in Tasmania, and extends its range 

 over the greater part of the eastern and southern portion of the mainland, 

 but is not found in Western Australia or northern Queensland. It is an 

 attractive little red-breast with the whole of the upper surface and head 

 black, except for a white patch on the forehead and bands of the same colour 

 on the wings ; its breast is a rich red, and from the quality of this colour 

 and by its large white top-knot this species is easily distinguished from the 

 other two illustrated, ft makes a cup-shaped nest of scraps of bark bound 

 up with other fibre, matted together with spiders' web and lined with soft 

 bark, fur, or feathers — -"in the fern-tree gullies of Gippsland with the soft 

 downy fibre from the fern trees," says North. The nest is placed in a cleft 

 in a tree, and contains three or four light gi"eenish-white eggs spotted and 

 speckled (thickest on the upper half) with brown and grey. This robin is 

 said to rear two and sometimes three broods in the year. 



The species is described under the name of Petroeca multicolor Vig. and 

 Horsf ., in Gould's Handbook, but is now known under the specific name of 

 P. leggii, Sharpe. Lewin called it the Red-breasted Warbler. Gould says, 

 •' Its song and call-note much resemble that of the European robin, but are 

 more feeble and uttered with a more inward tone." 



The Flame-breasted Robin {Petroeca phcenica Gould). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 232, No. Ifi7 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 123, No. 245. 



This species has a similar range to that of the Scarlet-breasted Robin. 

 In the breeding season, says Campbell, it is more abundant in Tasmania and 

 the islands in Bass Straits than on the mainland. Its favourite haunts are 

 open valleys and mountain gullies. It builds the typical cup-shaped nest of 

 the, robins, composed of grass and fine roots, lined inside, and coated on the 

 outside with spiders' web and bits of lichen and bark. The nest may be 

 placed in the cleft of a rock, on the bank of a creek, or a hollow or depression 

 in a tree stem. The clutch of eggs, three or sometimes four, are greenish-white, 

 and spotted or blotched with brown or grey. 



