MELANODRYAS. 
105 
Genus MELANODEYAS, Gould. 
MELANODRYAS BICOLOR, Vigors and Vor afield. 
(M. cucullata, Latham.) 
Hooded Robin. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Bds. Aust., Yol. i., sp. 168, p. 283. 
The nest of this species is usually placed on the thick branch 
or fork of a tree close to the ground ; one before me taken by 
Mr. K. H. Bennett at Mossgiel, September 1886, is a round, open, 
shallow structure, composed of strips of bark, held together by 
cobwebs, and lined inside with tine grasses and rootlets, measuring 
two inches and a-quarter across, by five-eighths of an inch in depth, 
inside measurement. The eggs three in number for a sitting, are 
olive-green with a very faint tint of reddish-brown on the larger 
end. Length (A) 0'S3 x 065 inch ; (B) 0'85 x 065 inch ; (C) 
084 x 0'65 inch. The eggs of this species vary in tint; a set I 
have in my collection taken in the Wimmera District, Victoria, 
being of a bright apple green. 
The breeding season commences in August and lasts through 
the four following months. 
llab. Wide Bay District, Dawson River, Richmond and Clarence 
River Districts, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, 
West and South-West Australia. {Ramsay.) 
MELANODRYAS PICATA, Gould. 
Pied Robin. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Birds Aust., Vol. i., sp. 169, p. 285. 
This bird has a wide range over the continent of Australia, 
specimens having been procured together with the nest and eggs 
by Mr. James Ramsay, in October 1876, near Bourke, New South 
Wales; and last year both Mr. Cairn and the late Mr. T. II. 
Boycr-Bower obtained several specimens about eighty miles inland 
from Derby, North-western Australia. 
