SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 55 



The Hooded Robin [Petrceca (Melanodryas) hicolor Vig. and Horfs.] 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 283, No. 168 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 133, No. 249. 



Black-and-White, or Pied Robin, are names also given to this handsome 

 little bird. Both are distinctive, as the plumage is all black and white, 

 without any red on the head or breast, while the black plumage of the 

 liead and throat forms a regular hood. The old generic name of Melanodryas 

 used by Campbell. North, and on our plate, has been discai'ded for that of 

 Petrceca, for in structure and habits this bird should be grouped with these 

 redbreasts. Hall and Leach both use this generic name. 



This robin may be found in open forest country over the length and 

 breadth o^ Australia, and in favoured localities is a common bird. It is very 

 active in hunting for insects, catching them on the wing, among foliage, and 

 on the ground. This bird is somewhat remarkable by reason of its habit of 

 selecting for its nest a lowly site — such as the top of a stump, or the fork of 

 .a low sapling. The nest is a typically cup-shaped robin's, composed of bits 

 of bark or twigs and grass, with the outer surface covered with bits of bark 

 attached by spiders' web, the whole compactly built and lined inside with 

 soft materials. The eggs, either three or four in the clutch, vary in colour 

 from dull-apple to olive-green, sometimes with a clouded band at the apex. 



The Yellow-breasted Robin {Eopsaltria australis Latham.) 



Gould's Handbook, vol. L, p. 293, No. 175 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 132, No. 326. 



The bird pictured in our illustration as the Yellow-breasted Robin is, 

 strictly speaking, a shrike-robin, and belongs to a different group from 

 that containing the robin-redbreasts. It was among the first birds noticed 

 at Sydney Cove, and is figured in White's " Voyage to New South Wales " 

 (1790), under the name of the Southern Motacilla. It may be noticed that 

 many of the older naturalists called the different robins flycatchers. Lewin, 

 in his " Birds of New Holland," figured this one, and called it the Yellow- 

 breasted Thrush. Gould formed the genus Eopsaltria {Eos dawn, and Psaltria 

 a. musician), which might be translated as " a singer at dawn," for this bird 

 and allied species. 



The range of this robin is chiefly confined to the thick timber and dense 

 brush country along the coastal districts of New South Wales and Victoria, 

 and does not extend far inland. Two species are found in the eastern area 

 and two in Western Australia. 



The Yellow-breasted Robin feeds upon all kinds of small insects, often 

 Testing quietly on a branch to fly down and snap up a moth or fly on the wing. 

 She makes her nest towards the end of September or early in October — a nest 

 which, even compared with those of the other robins, which are all of dainty 

 craftsmanLship— is a masterpiece in bird architecture. It is cup-shaped, and is 

 composed of strips of bark and roots, lined with leaves and matted together 

 with cobwebs, to which are attached lichens and bits of bark over the outer 



