27 



tail feathers to be brown rather than grey, the colour of the upper 

 tail coverts. 



Petrceca bicolor, Vig. and Hors. 



Petroica bicolor, Gould., Bds. Austr., fol. vol. III., pi. 7. 



Petrceca bicolor, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. Bds., vol. IV., p. 173; 

 Hall, "Key to the Birds of Austr.," p. 14. 



Adult skin (not sexed), ll/12/'98. 



The habits of this bird are very different to those of the other 

 members of this family, and one would scarcely know it to belong 

 to the Robins. It pipes its trilling notes from early to late, and 

 when other Robins are in the shade, this is most actively chasing 

 and capturing grasshoppers. It freely associates with other 

 birds (^as the Artamida3). Amongst birds in general, there 

 appears to be security in numbers. 



Petrceca goodknovii, Vig. and Hors. 



Petroica goodenovii, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. vol. III., pi. 5. 

 Petrceca goodenovii, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, vol. IV., 

 p. 171 ; Hall, "Key to the Birds of Austr.," p. 13. 



a. Adult skin, male, 20/l/'99. c. Skin, juv. male, Dec, 1898. 



b. Immature skin. d. Skin, juv. female, Dec, 1898. 

 (a). It is blacker on the throat and duller on the breast than 



the Eastern skins in my collection. The forehead " reds " bear 

 the same relation to the breast "reds" in each. 



(b). It has the basal frontal mark duller than in (a) and much 

 less of it. The breast red is dull, throat brownish-black. 



(c). It has only a trace of red on the forehead and pectoral 

 regions ; throat, crown, and nape greyish-brown. 



(d). It has a faint trace of red on the forehead, none on the 

 breast. 



The plumage of what are called the Red Robins is quite im- 

 perfect at the close of 12 months, yet in this phase they nest and 

 rear a family. Immature birds in Victoria have nested in 

 August of different years. Matured birds will breed twice in a 

 season with two to three eggs laid on successive days. Incubation 

 lasts 14 days, during which the disturbed bird will often feign 

 injury when you approach the nest. Mr. J. A. Hill, of Kewell, 

 in a letter to me gives the time between the starting of nest- 

 building to laying of first egg as ten days. On February 15, 

 1899, I secured a young male skin in Victoria showing the 

 change from the brown plumage to the showy one. The tawny 

 feathers of the forehead had mostly given way for the brilliant 

 reds ; one patch of brownish feathers remained on the chest, 

 while all the others either had " burst their buds " or were doing 

 so into bright-red. Excepting the middle feathers, all the others 

 of the tail were short and irregularly graduated. The brownish 



