272 TIMKLIID.E. 



A nest of this species in the South Austrahan Museum, Adelaide, taken by Mr. Edwin 

 Ashby at Kanoona, Western Australia, on the 2nd September, 1899, is attached to the stems 

 of a low bush, and was built near the ground. It is oval in form with an entrance in the side, 

 and more neatly made than typical nests of Acanthisa pusilla. Outwardly it is constructed of 

 fine soft dried grasses, matted together with spider's webs and egg-bags, and lined inside with 

 feathers. It averages nearly four inches in length by three inches in breadth, and across the 

 entrance one inch and a quarter. Mr. W. D. Campbell, of the Geological Survey of Western 

 Australia, sent two nests of this species to the Australian Aluseuni. that he obtained near his 

 camp at Menzies, Western Australia. Both were built close to one another in drooping leafy 

 twigs of a thickly foliaged tree, and presumably by the same pair of birds. They are outwardly 

 formed of very fine dried grasses, flowering plant stems, cobwebs, bits of string, and cotton, and 

 lined inside with feathers. 



The eggs are three in number for a sitting, oval in form, the shell being close-grained, 

 smooth, and lustreless. They are white, with minute freckles and dots x'arying from dull red 

 to pinkish and faint chestnut-red, distributed over the shell, but usually predominating on the 

 thicker end, where the markings are slightly larger and darker, and in some instances form an 

 irregular-shaped cap or zone. A set of three, taken near Perth, Western Australia, measures:^ 

 Length (A) o'59 x 0-47 inches; (B) 0-62 x 0-48 inches; (C) 0-64 x 0-5 inches. 



Acanthiza diemenensis. 



TASMANIAN THORN-IiILL 

 Acanthiza diemenensis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 1 IG; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. III., pi. .54 

 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. :5G.t (1805); .Sharpe, Cat. Bds, Brit Mus., 

 Vol. VII., p. 295 (1883). 



AuuLT MALE — General colour above olive-hrown, slightly tinged with dull gree^i ; upper rving- 

 coverts like the back, the greater series with dusky centres; quills dusky brou-n, externally edged with 

 olive-brown; upper tail-coverts pale olive-rufous; tail feathers ashy-brotvn, broadly edged with 2}ale 

 olive-rufous at the base and crossed rvith a distinct subterminal black band except on the central 

 pair; extreme edge of the tips of the lateral feathers zvhite; forehead pale rufous-broivn with narrow 

 blackish edges to most of the feathers ; ear-coverts olive-broivn with irhitish shaft-streaks; chin, tltroat, 

 and fore-neck greyish-ivhile, tvith dusky grey bases to all the feathers, giving these parts a mottled 

 appearance ; centre of the breast and abdomen dull vihite tinged with fulvous ; sides of the breast pale 

 fulvous, becom,ing slightly darker or fulvous-brown on the flanks ; under tail-coverts pale fulvous; 

 bill blackish-broivn ; legs and feet dark brotvn; iris reddish-brou-n. Total length 4 inches, wing 

 2-1, tail 1-7, billO-SS, tarsus OS. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the tnale. 



Distribution. — Tasmania. 

 /"l^HIS bird, generally known to the residents of Tasmania as the "Brown-tail," is 

 J- closely allied to Acanthiza pnsilla of the Australian continent. Typically it may be 

 distinguished by its slightly richer coloured upper tail-coverts, darker flanks, and larger size, 

 the wing-measurement of adult males varying from 2 to 2'3 inches. I have, however, before 

 me examples of A. pusilla, obtained in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, and have seen 

 others that were procured in the southern parts of Victoria that can hardly be distinguished 

 from specimens of A . diemenensis procured in Tasmania. The difference in colour of the upper 

 parts, shown in Gould's figures oi A. pnsilla and A. diemenensis, in his "Birds of Australia,"* is 

 not apparent in a large series of these birds in the Reference Collection. 



• Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. iii., pis. 53-54 (1848). 



