Vol. X.-) 

 1910 



] DovEj The Dusky Robin (Peirosca vittata). 13 1 



These combined observations seem to show that incubation lasts 

 15 days, that the eyes open in from 6 to 7 days, and that the young 

 fly about 14 clays after hatching. 



In Robert HaU's " Key to the Birds of Australia " the plumage 

 of the adult Dusky Robin is described as " brownish-olive above ; 

 throat dusky-brown ; only outer tail feather white at base and 

 for the whole extent of outer web ; under surface brown." The 

 wings are crossed by two oblique whitish bars, and there is no 

 white frontal spot as in our other two familiar Robins. The sexes 

 are alike in plumage. The tip of the upper mandible is slightly 

 hooked. In the young birds, on leaving the nest, the colouring is 

 very different, and one would take them to be another species. 

 The head, back, breast, and wing coverts are heavily streaked and 

 mottled with light and dark brown, giving the birds the appearance 

 of young Thrushes. Those fledglings which left the nest on 24th 

 September were about the scrub at the beginning of October with 

 their parents ; the latter kept giving a warning whistle on my 

 approach, and fluttered about in a state of excitement to lure me 

 away, while the young made an almost continuous plaintive little 

 whistling noise, to keep in touch with their parents, uttering also 

 an occasional " tweet." In November this family still haunted 

 the same scrub. One of the young (which had left the nest on 24th 

 September) was seen on the nth, and looked a fine bird, in its 

 lighter plumage appearing larger than the adults. It was much 

 splashed on the breast with a darker colour, and the front of 

 the head had a mottled look. The wing-bars were still reddish- 

 brown. 



The Dusky Robin — which, by the way, is frequently called 

 " Stump Robin," from its predilection for sitting about the stumps 

 of a clearing, and sometimes building in a similar situation — has 

 no song like its congeners, the Flame and Scarlet-breasted Robins, 

 but its love-call is sweetly plaintive — a double whistling note, 

 which is one of the most familiar sounds in winter and spring about 

 a settler's home. An interesting trait of this bird, which is not as 

 well known as it is in the case of the Dottrel or the familiar little 

 White-fronted Chat, is its habit of pretending to be wounded to 

 lure away the intruder. Allusion has already been made to the 

 female's guile when disturbed on the nest ; but a much more 

 striking example was afforded us one November, when climbing 

 the slopes of Mount Arthur. My companions were Mr. H. C. 

 Thompson and Mr. Robt. M'Gowan, and we had found in a dry, 

 hollow tree the nest of a " Dusky," from which the young had 

 flown. Shortly afterwards the female was sighted clinging to the 

 side of a dead tree. As we approached she dropped to the ground 

 backwards, and lay there fluttering, as though suffering the agonies 

 of death after being shot. When we went up to investigate she 

 fluttered painfully away in an opposite direction to where the 

 young were concealed. 



This species nests from August to December, two broods, and 

 probably three in some cases, being reared. 



