mottled with drab and buffy brown; belly light buff with ochraceous tinge towards flanks and under tail coverts. (Nelson, undated.) Variation: Colour of breast varies in intensity in both sexes. In males, the palest appear whitebreasted in the field. Some of the variation is due to age of the individual (Stead, in Oliver, 1930) and to seasonal fading. A rare condition is represented by C.M. 0.1080.12, ♂ ad., Otago, in which the breast is salmon (R) above, passing into light ochraceous salmon below. The same phenotype has been recorded in marrineri and chathamensis: apparently the genes controlling it are present in all three races. Occasionally a faint second alar bar is represented by small white spots on the outer webs of secondaries, distal to the main alar bar, and reminiscent of the second bar characteristic of the Australian Scarlet Robin, P. multicolor subsp. Variation in tail pattern chiefly concerns the character of the tip of the fourth rectrix (Table 2). In over 80% of males and in all females examined the inner web of this feather is white to the tip, the conditions tabulated as “clear” and “nearly clear” in Table 2. Table 2—Variation in Tail Pattern In Races of Petroica macrocephala Gm. Subspecies: toitoi macrocephala chathamensis marrineri Sex: ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ Number examined: 31 23 29 8 13 9 7 4 4th Rectrices: inner web clear to tip. 11 20 17 8 0 0 0 1 4th Rectrices: nearly clear to tip. 9 3 7 0 0 1 3 1 4th Rectrices: inner web smoky or with incomplete black tip. 11 0 5 0 1 3 3 2 4th Rectrices: inner web with black tip. 0 0 0 0 12 5 1 0 3rd Rectrices: with white spot. 1 1 0 1 0 0 3 2 5th Rectrices: inner web clear to tip. 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 Percentage with dominantly clear webs on 4th rectrices. 78 86 5 45 Percentage with dark tipped inner webs on 4th rectrices. 22 14 95 55 Percentage with white spot on 3rd rectrices. 4 3 0 45 Percentage with clear webs on 5th rectrices (as in P. multicolor subsp.). 4 5 0 0 In the remaining 20% of males the black of the outer web encroaches a little on to the inner web (incomplete black tip). One female has a white spot on the third rectrix, a character of marrineri. One of each sex has the fifth rectrix “clear”; this apparently represents an ancestral condition, since the Australian species rosea, phoenecia, and races of multicolor have the inner webs of their patterned rectrices white to the tip. (Plate 6.) Female dorsal plumage varies a little from fuscous to olive brown and mummy brown (R). The frontal spot shows some slight variation.