INSESSORES. 291 



Sp. 174. DRYMODES SUPERCILIARIS, Gould. 



Eastern Scrub Robin. 



Drymodes super cilim^is, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xviii. p. 200. 

 Trokaroo, Aborigines of Cape York. 



Drymodes superciliaris, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, Supple- 

 ment, pi. 



Perhaps one of the most interesting birds discovered by 

 me in the brushes of South Australia was a species of this 

 form, to which 1 gave the name of Drymodes hrurmeopygia ; 

 this second species of the genus is an inhabitant of the north- 

 east coast ; and it will be seen by the following notes by Mr. 

 Macgillivray that the two birds, as might be supposed, accord 

 as nearly in their habits as they are allied in structure. 



" While traversing on the 17th of November, 1849, a thin 

 open scrub of small saplings growing in a stony ground 

 thickly covered with dead leaves, about five or six miles inland 

 from Cape York, I observed a nest placed on the earth at 

 the foot of a small tree ; its internal diameter was four inches 

 and a half ; it was outwardly composed of small sticks, with 

 finer ones inside, and lined with grass-like fibres, and was 

 moreover surrounded with dead leaves heaped up to a level 

 with its upper surface ; it contained two eggs an inch long 

 by seven-tenths of an inch broad, of a regular oval shape, and 

 of a very light stone-grey thickly covered with small umber 

 blotches, which increased in size and were more thickly placed 

 at the larger end : they were placed side by side, with the 

 large end of one opposite the small end of the other. After 

 watching near the nest for some time, one of the owners 

 appeared, and was procured ; but putrefaction having com- 

 menced before my return to the ship, I could not ascertain 

 the sex with certainty : it approached me within three or four 

 yards, hopping with sudden jerks over the leaves, and moving 

 by fits and starts like the Robin of Europe ; it uttered no cry 



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