THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 193 



Judging by the large amount of singing that is done by the 

 male (the females are almost mute) in April and May, and the 

 apparent anxiety of each male to please a female, including the 

 combats of jealous males, I should think the arrangement to 

 mate was then being made. In the winter the males, for a time, 

 become dissociated from the females and young. This I judge 

 by seeing twenty-one adult males by themselves in a flock 

 (25/6/97). At the moment I wondered why such should be, and 

 whether they had actually arranged their nesting partners for the 

 following August. How the twenty-one males would know their 

 partners again is an interesting problem, and why the females 

 leave the males at this time is another. 



The young of the past season, soon after leaving their nests, 

 are placed upon their own resources, and for about a year keep 

 to the cover. It is not unlikely that on account of the pugnacity 

 of the male the young males have to keep away, and the female 

 or females of the same brood keep it or them company. The 

 adult male shows fight to every young male (even only a few 

 months old) or adult that approaches it when there is one or 

 sometimes two females about it. At certain times many males 

 and females (possibly young too) associate on the same field, 

 and the "redbreasts" show ordinary jealousy; this simply 

 means a deal of fuss and " clipping of shears " noise. 



It is not improbable the young follow their parents or take up 

 the rear to the van. When July arrives I also think that the 

 mass of the females of a certain district join the mass of the 

 young, and for a few weeks enjoy themselves under the amalga- 

 mation. I have seen quite a score of these plain-plumaged birds 

 upon a refuse hillock, surrounded by timber, and quietly working 

 for their daily bread. The success varies with them just as it 

 does with the opportunity and efforts of every other living thing. 

 In this respect the season governs the supply, and the birds 

 either know it (inherently) or learn from the most severe though 

 best of all teachers — experience. 



Both Robins, P. leggii and P. phoenicea, traverse together the 

 same fields in winter and feed upon the same nature of foods ; 

 but when August comes both leave the open, the former simply 

 keeping to the environment of the well-grassed lands. It rarely 

 beats the innermost covert to see what it would yield. 



My experience of the times when nest-building starts has been : 

 At Box Hill, 1/9/94 and 26/10/94; at Dandenong, 19/9/86; at 

 Bayswater, 24/11/94 (per Mr. Joseph Gabriel). In the first 

 case I found the nest remained to be lined internally, and when 

 I approached it the owner retired shyly to a distance. In the 

 second case one egg was in it, but upon examination the follow- 

 ing day it was broken, and the ants were carrying it away so early. 

 It occurred to me the female bird was irritable, and perhaps 



