286 BIRDS or AUSTRALIA. 



Genus AMAURODRYAS, Gould. 



The well-known Dusky Robin of Tasmania differs in several 

 particulars from the true Petroica, not only in colour, but in 

 the stouter and more robust or thicker form of the bill ; its 

 eggs are also very different from those of the Petroiccs. The 

 sexes are alike in colouring. 



Sp. 170. AMAURODRYAS VITTATA. 



Dusky Robin. 

 Muscicapa vittata, Quoy et Gaim. Voy. de VAstrolabe^ pi. 3. fig. 2 ? 



Petroica fusca, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iii. pi. 8. 



This plain-coloured species is very abundantly distributed 

 over all those parts of Tasmania that are suitable to its habits ; 

 it gives preference to thinly-timbered hills, and all such plains 

 and low grounds as are sterile and covered with thickets and 

 stunted brushwood. In its manners and whole economy it 

 assimilates to the Red-breasted Robins ; I frequently observed 

 it sitting on the stumps of dead and fallen trees, on the rail- 

 ings of inclosures, gardens, and other similar situations. Its 

 food appeared to consist solely of insects, which it swallows 

 entire, even coleoptera of a large size. 



Its nest, which is rather large and of a cup-shape, is formed 

 of coarse fibrous roots, small twigs, strings of bark and dried 

 grasses intermixed with very fine hair-like fibrous roots, wool, 

 and the soft seed-stalks of mosses. The size and form of the 

 nest depend upon the nature of the situation chosen for a site ; 

 if a ledge or fissure of a rock, it is much spread out, but with 

 the inside and top very neatly finished ; the opening measures 

 on an average about two inches and a half, and the nest is 

 about one inch and a quarter in depth. 



The eggs, which are three or four in number, differ in 

 colour from those of every othei member of the genus, but 

 more nearly assimilate in tint and markings to those of 



