SCRUB ROBIN. 
with the bill after a grub, and jumping back with apparent nervousness before 
renewing the attack , on one occasion I saw a bird fly about two feet into the air 
and capture a passing insect, but grubs are the chief item of diet. When perched, 
this species glances at the ground, with its head first on one side and vice versa , 
as though watching an insect, while its tail is often raised and lowered with a slow 
motion. One nest was found containing a newly-hatched chick, which was 
naked, with skin of a dark brown colour, gape cream. I believe that stump- 
tailed lizards ( Trachysaurus rugosus ) are responsible for the disappearance of 
many eggs and young of these ground -frequenting birds, and these lizards are 
in hundreds in this district. I found nests, both with eggs and young, which 
upon later visits proved to have been despoiled, and I concluded that they had 
been raided by these reptiles.” 
Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley has also written : “ This long-legged, dull brown 
bird, with its characteristic spots around the eye, is the largest of the Robins 
frequenting the 4 mallee,’ which arid region is its principal habitat. It 
frequents the mallee scrub, and is local in its habits, always met with in 
pairs, and does not wander far from one vicinity. Its food consists of insects 
which it finds by searching in the debris under dead leaves and other rubbish, 
such as bark. In rambling through the scrub one would often pass it by, were 
it not for the shrill whistling note with which it resents intrusion to its abode. 
The note has the timbre of that of the Thickhead family. It is a very active 
bird, and can rapidly proceed through the ‘ mallee ’ scrub, which it does by 
hopping and running, and rarely leaves the ground. As a ground-frequenting 
bird it has all the characteristic style of Australian scrub birds of small size 
that proceed by a succession of hops interspersed by short runs and which 
carry their tails in an erect posture at an angle of about 80°. If the nest is 
found before the bird lays in it, and the bird sees you gazing into it, the bi^d 
will desert it, but if there be eggs in it no desertion will take place. When 
the hen bird is sitting, the male bird at the first sound of intrusion comes to 
meet you and with a pleasing shrill whistling note keeps just a few yards ahead ; 
when he has decoyed you a hundred yards or so from his nest he mysteriously 
disappears and you next hear the note some distance away. The hen sits 
very close and will not leave the nest until you are within a few feet of it. 
Should the young be taken out of the nest and held in the hand, the cock bird 
sometimes flies down alongside with all his feathers ruffled out, and begins 
to peck one s fingers to release his progeny. It is a very lively and inquisitive 
bird, and my friend, Mr. Chas. McLennan, has bestowed the vernacular name 
of the Trappers’ Companion ’ upon it, since it is generally the first bird to 
herald his approach when on his daily round of setting dingo traps. Many 
a time have these birds approached within a foot or two when he was setting 
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