^"Igo"'] ^^''^y panthers. 3g 



I have a note of some negative importance concerning the 

 summer habitat of Pctnvca pha'ntcca. During an ascent of 

 Mt. William, in the Grampian Mountains, in the western portion 

 of Victoria, an elevation of 3,827 feet above the sea, no Robins 

 at all were seen. This was in March. There were none either 

 in the low country, though later in the year they come about 

 the farmsteads in small flocks. The highlands of eastern 

 Victoria are abundant with the species all through summer, 

 when they are not seen in the lowlands. However, on 8th 

 May, when another visit was paid to the locality, several Flame- 

 breasted Robins were seen about the foot of the mountains, 

 where the stationary species {P. Icggii) is found all the year 

 round. High up on one of the peaks, at an elevation of 2,500 

 feet, but in the shelter of a tea-tree gully, I was surprised to 

 meet with a female P. rJiodinogastra. This is a previously unre- 

 corded species for this area. — A. G. Campbell. May, 1907. 



Some Tasmanlvn Birds. — With regard to the suggestions 

 in TJie Emu, vol. vi., page 210 — " Why should all Flame-breasted 

 Robins leave lowlands at the approach of spring, and repair to 

 the elevated regions and Tasmania to breed .'' " What evidence 

 is there that these Robins do migrate } They certainly appear 

 to remain with us all the year. Mr. Hubert Thompson has 

 found six or seven of their nests within a small radius of 

 Launceston, and, as to altitude, the highest would probably be 

 not much over 300 feet above sea level. He has also seen a {q.v^ 

 pairs in this district in midwinter, but the bulk of them seem to 

 go to our coasts in the autumn, and remain there until next 

 nesting season. It is not at all uncommon at Devonport and 

 Table Cape, on the North-West Coast, to see twenty of these 

 birds feeding in a small paddock, the minority only having the 

 coloured breast, the remainder (hens and young males) being 

 perfectly plain. Mr. Thompson has seen them congregate thus 

 at Georgetown, near the mouth of the Tamar River. At the 

 approach of the warm weather they disperse, and seem to prefer 

 breeding away from the coast. The observations, extending 

 over a number of years, of my friend and self point to the pro- 

 bability of the male of this species not assuming its striking 

 colours until at least the second year, quite probably the third. 

 In their autumn and winter gatherings the .sober-tinted birds, as 

 stated, are always in a large majority. 



" Why should Kingfishers be absent from Tasmania ? " I 

 have frequently seen the beautiful little Alcyone aziirea on retired 

 streams, which are seldom visited, and do not doubt that it 

 would be much more common were it not shot at sight for its 

 skin — another argument for the speedy imposition of a gun tax. 

 There seems no reason why the Halcyon sanctns should not 



