THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. Tom Carter writes me : 4 ‘ The Hooded Robin was resident about 
Point Cloates on the ranges extending to the North-West Cape. The reason 
of their being almost restricted to them was because scrub and bushes grew 
there, while the surrounding country was practically destitute of such cover. 
Some of these birds were observed at Kellerberin in January 1903. They were 
lather common and resident around Broome Hill. The nesting -season was 
September and October, the nests being usually built in a small fork of a fallen 
dead branch as it lay on the ground. The nests were composed of strips of fine 
bark, small twigs and dry grass. Clutch of eggs, three. Sept. 5th, 1908.— 
Nest, three eggs incubated, about four feet from ground. Oct. 9th, 1910. 
— Similar nest with three fresh eggs.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers’s notes are : “ This species is not numerous at Kimberley, 
in fact in many parts it is rare. At Marngle Creek I saw some every day, 
usually along the creek which in places runs out into salt flats covered 
with samphire and edged with a thick growth of white-barked ti-trees. 
These places seem to be this bird’s favourite haunt. At Tanami this bird 
was very numerous. At Carnot Bay, fifty miles north of Broome River, in 
1902 this species w r as fairly numerous on the flats timbered with white- 
barked ti-tree similar to that on Marngle Creek. At Mungi the birds are 
numerous, being seen every day.” 
This species was described by Vigors and Horsfield as Grallina bicolor , but 
w r as transferred to Petroica by Swainson, the author of the latter genus. It 
remained there until Gould provided a new genus, Melanodryas, for it and 
another species we now rank as a subspecies only. At the same time Gould 
established Latham’s specific name as already noted, and this was used until 
Sharpe rejected it and revived Vigors and Hors field’s name. Sharpe, however, 
overlooked the fact that prior to these workers Vieillot had described a bird 
from “ Timor ” under the name (Enanthe pectoralis and that Pucheran had 
shown this was another case of confusion in labelling due to the collectors’ 
deaths and that it was the Australian bicolor. I therefore selected New South 
Wales as the type locality until such time as better data could be secured. 
Gould, in his “ Handbook,” named “ Melanodryas picata. I shall here, 
however, only describe the one from the north-west coast. The specimen is that 
of a fully adult male. In its colour and general form it is very like M. cucullata , 
but is much smaller than ornithologists admit to constitute a mere race or 
variety : wing 3|- inches.” No measurements of M. cucullata were given. 
As the only difference noted is size, the name came to be applied to small 
specimens from whatever locality they were received, even young birds being 
so named by North himself. When he recognised this fact he withdrew his 
separation of the two forms. Hartert then used Melanodryas bicolor picata 
118 
