The male has the crown of the head and all the upper surface sooty grey, except a small white spot across the forehead, a patch of the same colour on the shoulders and the anterior edges of the tertials; primaries and tail-feathers greyish black, except the outer feathers of the latter, which are nearly all white; the second tail-feather on each side is also tinged with white; upper part of the throat sooty grey, the rest of the under surface rich scarlet; under tail-coverts white; irides, bill and feet black. The female is uniform brown above; wings dark brown; tertials and wing-coverts edged with reddish grey; tail brown; the outer tail-feathers on each side almost wholly white; all the under surface reddish grey; irides, bill and feet black. The young resembles the female, but has the centre of the feathers lighter, and the corners of the mouth yellow; bill and feet blackish brown. The Plate represents the male, female and nest of the natural size. [Illustration: PETROICA BICOLOR: _Swains._ _J. Gould and H. C. Richter del^t._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ] PETROICA BICOLOR, _Swains._ Pied Robin. _Muscicapa cucullata_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. 51? _Hooded Flycatcher_, Lath. Gen. Syn., Supp., vol. ii. p. 223? and Gen. Hist., vol. vi. p. 216? _Petroica bicolor_, Swains. III. Zool., 2nd Ser., pl. 43. _Jil-but_, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western Australia. _Goȍ-ba-mȍgin_, Aborigines around Perth, Western Australia. _Black Robin_ of the Colonists. If we consider the Pied Robins from Swan River and the north-west coast of Australia as identical with, or mere varieties of, those killed in New South Wales, from which they differ only in being smaller in all their admeasurements, then the range of the present bird will be very extensive, and in fact its dispersion over the Australian continent almost universal. The _Petroica bicolor_ has never been found in Van Diemen’s Land, nor is it probable that it proceeds so far south. It loves to dwell in the open parts of the country rather than in the thick brushes. I have always found it most numerous on such flats as were studded here and there with large trees, among the lower branches of which, as well as on the ground immediately beneath them, it might be observed darting about for insects in the most bold and active manner; the jet-black colouring of its upper surface, contrasted with the whiteness of the other parts, rendering it very conspicuous, particularly when its wings and tail are displayed to their full extent. Its food consists solely of insects of various kinds, particularly coleoptera and their larvæ.