224 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
that was exceptionally late. Any moderately thick 
belt of bushland will serve these Robins as a nesting- 
haunt. The nest itself is cup-shaped, deep, woven 
of grasses and rootlets, and often has spider-web 
binding it externally ; within it is warmly lined with 
rabbit-fur or cow-hair, feathers being seldom used. 
It is placed about lo feet from the ground in the 
perpendicular fork of a gum, banksia, or wattle. 
The eggs are invariably three in number, of whitish 
ground-colour and spotted thickly with various 
shadings, with the ring about the thicker end common 
to so many small birds' eggs. 
FLAME-BREASTED ROBIN 
Littlera chrysoptera phoenicea 
Up to within the past few years the Flame Robin 
(you may know the male by the red of the breast 
extending over the throat as well, and by his back 
being dark sooty grey, not black) was supposed to 
breed in Tasmania only, and to be merely a winter 
visitor to the mainland. I should not like to say 
that no Flame Robins ever cross Bass Strait ; it is, 
however, my belief that the majority at least of 
those which we see so commonly on the open country 
about Geelong, from April till August, breed in the 
Cape Otway forest westward from Lorne in the 
months from October to January. That is to say, 
that this is a migratory species with an exceedingly 
limited range. 
