88 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on the 



126. Ekitiiacus swYNNERTONi. Swynncrtoii's Robin. 



Erithacus swytmertoni Shelley, Bull. B. O. C. xvi. p. 125 ; 

 Swynn. Ibis, 1907, p. 61, pi. i. 



Rh. I have never found this Robin up to the present 

 except in the two forest-patehes of Chirinda and Chipete. In 

 common with Tarsiger stellatus it comes very readily to traps, 

 and I was forced to discontinue trapping for small insecti- 

 vorous mammals in the forest owing to the wholesale 

 though unintentional destruction of these two Robins which 

 was resulting from it. This species, too, is being tempted 

 out of the forest by my planting-operations, and during 

 April of this year several pairs were to be found daily working 

 their way along the hedge-bottoms near Chirinda in search 

 of insects, and uttering in addition to their usual note a small 

 sibilant '* si-si-si," accompanied by a frequent little flutter of 

 the wings. Their only approach to a song, so far as I have 

 been able, to ascertain, consists of the ordinary somewhat 

 plaintive call-note repeated several times in succession 

 somewhat loudly. 



I have again examined a large number of the nests of this 

 Robin during the past season. Of these, two were placed in the 

 hollows of trunks of trees, one, after the fashion of a Tree- 

 creeper, between the woody stems of a climber and the trunk 

 of a fair-sized Gardenia tigr'ma, and all the rest, as described 

 already (' Ibis,' 1907, p. 61), either in Dracienas or between 

 the suckers springing from the sides or tops of stumps, both 

 of these situations being apparently equally popular. I have 

 found one nest containing three eggs, the clutch consisting 

 in all other cases of only two. In a few instances the birds 

 were exceedingly bold and demonstrative at the nest, the 

 female always taking the lead, but this appears to be the 

 exception rather than the rule. The stomachs examined 

 (37) have contained Elaterid larvae, wood-lice, termites, 

 beetle-larvae, ants (including numbers of a black stinging 

 wood- ant), grasshoppers, a bug, moth-ova, Ce//i5-berries, 

 Geometer and other moth larvae, small snails, a very small 

 millipede, a somewhat large centipede (entire), and quantities 

 of beetles. Twenty-nine of these Robins averaged 5*39 in 

 length in the flesh, varying from 5 to 5'8 inches. 



