ACANTniZA. 273 



From Dr. L. Holden's MS. notes, made while resident at Circular Head, on the north- 

 western coast of Tasmania, the following information is extracted : — " I found a nest of 

 Acanthiza dicmenensis on the 20th October, 1886, hangin.t; from the twigs of a dwarf tea-tree, 

 surrounded with reedy grass, and about two feet from the ground. It was a small domed 

 nest, with an entrance near the top, and was made of dry grass and soft bark, lined with 

 hair, feathers, and a little moss, and contained three fresh eggs. On the 21st September, 1888, 

 I found another, with four slightly incubated eggs, built about four feet from the ground, in a 

 clump of weeds over-running a Mimosa. It was built of dry grass to imitate the wreaths of old 

 weed and was thickly lined with hair and feathers. The bird sat close, and both came very 

 near while the nest was being taken. Companies of these birds, associated with ISlue Wrens, 

 are numerous in the scrub on Se\'en Mile Beach during April." 



At Bellerive, near Hobart, on the 15th September, igoi, Dr. Holden found a nest con- 

 taining young. It was placed on the ground among grass-stems, between a shoot and the stem 

 of a pear-tree in a field adjoining his liouse. 



A nest taken by Mr. K. N. Atkinson at Mount Bischoff, is elongate-oval in form, and 

 outwardly consists of very thin dried strips of bark, and is lined with feathers of the Yellow- 

 bellied Parrakeet. It measures externally seven inches in height by four inches in width; 

 across the entrance one inch and a quarter, and was built in a low shrub near the ground. 



The eggs are usually three or four in number for a sitting. o\-al or rounded oval in form, 

 some specimens being rather pointed at the larger end, the shell being close-grained, smooth, 

 and slightly lustrous. They are white with freckles or small irregular-shaped spots, varying 

 from light red to pinkish and pale purplish-red, distributed in some instances o\-er the shell, in 

 others principally or entirely confined to the larger end, where they frequently assume the form 

 of a more or less well defined zone. Three eggs of a set of four, taken at Circular Head by 

 Dr. L. Holden on the 27th September, 1888, measure as follows; — Length (A) 07 x 0-5 inches; 

 (B)o-6gxo-5i inches; (C) 07 x 0-58 inches. 



August and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season of the Tasmanian 

 Thorn-bill. 



Acanthiza ewingi. 



SWING'S THORN-BILL. 

 Acanthiza ewingii, Gould, Bds. Austr., fob, Vol. III., pi. 55 (1848). 

 Acanthiza eivingi, North, Proo. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 30th March (1904). 



Adult malr — General colour above brown ivashed with dull greenish-olive, more distinctly on 

 the lower hack and rump; upper tail-coverts rufescent-olive ; lesser and median upper wing-coverts 

 like the hack, the greater coverts blackish margined on their outer ivebs and tipped with dull greenislt- 

 olive ; primary-coverts blackish; bastard iving blackish, the outer featliers indistinctly edged toith 

 dull greenish-olive; quills dark hroivn, the primaries externally margined at the base of their outer 

 tvebs u'ith light rufescent-olive which gradually passes into greenish-olive towards the tips, the 

 secondaries externally margined with greenish-olive, the outermost series with blackish margins 

 towards the base; tail feathers light dusky brown, externally margined ivith rufescent-olive darker 

 at the base, narrower and lighter towards the tips, and crossed with a distinct subterminal band of 

 black; extreme edge of the tips of the inner webs of the lateral feathers ivhite; ear-coverts dull olive- 

 brorvn; chin, cheeks, throat, and fore-neck grey ; remainder of the under surf ace dull white faintly 

 tinged ivith greenish-olive, which gradually becomes darker on the lower portion of the abdomen and 

 flanks; under tail-coverts white faintly tinged with greenish-olive ; thighs dull brownish-white washed 



AaU 



