II HOBART AND THE MIDLANDS 65 



The electric blue of the male Wren and the scarlet 

 of the Robin are among the most vivid colours in 

 nature, and the birds are very common and by 

 no means shy, seeming, indeed, rather anxious to 

 show off their plumage to a stranger. 



Closely related to the Flame-breasted Robin is 

 the Dusky Robin (P. fusca), a most insignificant 

 brown bird without any gay coloration at all in 

 either sex. Seeing these two common species of 

 bird living together under exactly similar con- 

 ditions leads one to reflect upon the powerful 

 operations which the mere caprice and love of 

 beauty has effected in nature, for, look at it how 

 we may, some dusky forbears of the Scarlet- 

 breasted Robin have thrown their corner of nature 

 into a convulsion, and made themselves into a new 

 species, simply for some whim of a red stomacher. 

 And so far from this giddy ambition leading them 

 to destruction, it is even at the present time a pro- 

 tection, for the colonists think the bird pretty and 

 are reminded by it of the Robin living in the coun- 

 try which is still referred to vaguely as home, and 

 so it is believed that if you kill a ' Robin ' you 

 will never have good luck again. In another of the 

 Tasmanian Robins, known as the Pink-breasted 

 Robin, the male has the breast of a most beautiful 

 claret colour ; this species is much rarer than the 

 foregoing, and I only saw it on a few occasions, 

 once in a thick part of the gum forest on Mount 

 Wellington, and once in the myrtle forests on the 

 west coast. 



SMITH: N.T. -Bj 



