ACANTIIIZA. 



277 



f~T(f^}]]'. present species is freely distributed tlirougliout the coastal scrubs and contiguous 

 -L mountain ranges of soutli-eastern Australia. It evinces a decided preference for low 

 gum sapling scrubs growing in humid localities, and is not met with in the dry inland portions 

 of tlie States. 



Specimens from the Mount Lofty Ranges, near Adelaide, where Dr. A. M. Morgan and 

 Mr. A. Zietz inform me this species is very common, are richer and darker in colour, especially 

 on the under-surface, than examples obtained in New South Wales, where the type was 

 obtained. The wing-measurement of adult males from different localities varies from rg to 2-i 

 inches. 



About Middle Harbour, Sydney, and the highlands of the Milson's Point railway-line, it is 

 usually met with during the autumn and winter months in small flocks from five to seven 

 or more in number, minutely examining the lea\es and crevices in the stems of saplings for 

 insects and their lar\;e, which constitute their sole food. The bills of birds of this genus are 



well adapted for prying into the smallest recesses, and I 

 have often watched this species extract the larvrc of 

 insects from what a few feet away looked like a closely- 

 fitting and perfectly glabrous bark. Fruit-trees, vines, 

 and cultivated shrubs are also carefully scrutinized 

 for food by these acti\'e little birds, whose presence is 

 often betrayed by their somewhat monotonous "chip, 

 chip," which is continuously uttered as they are engaged 

 in their search among the leaves or stems for insects. 

 Both m the bush, in orchards, and gardens these birds 

 are very tame and fearless; they should, however, be 

 zealously protected by orchardists and viticulturists, 

 for they do no harm, but materially assist in reducing 

 the number of insect pests which infest fruit-trees and 

 vines. To gardeners also they are invaluable, tor they 

 rid many shrubs and plants of blight, although in this 

 respect they pay more attention to the indigenous than 

 the acclimatised flora. There is nothing in the actions of Acanthiza lincata to distinguish it from 

 A. piisillii, excepting that it is more arboreal in habits. 



The nests are oval or pear-shaped in form, with a rounded spout-like entrance towards the 

 top. Outwardly they are formed of shreds or fine strips of stringy-bark, intermingled with a 

 few fine grasses and a large quantity of spiders' web and cocoons, firmly matted and woven 

 together; the inner wall and bottom of the structure, which is usually very thick, bemg 

 composed wholly of soft inner bark fibre, and the inside thickly lined with feathers, cow- 

 hair, or the silky down from the pods of the introduced cotton-plant. Most of the nests I have 

 examined which have been built near dwellings have been lined with fowls' feathers. Some 

 are more neatly made than others, and are thickly coated with spiders' webs and egg-bags, 

 others have a reddish-hue from their being formed chiefly of stringy-bark, while occasionally 

 they are ornamented with soft pieces of white paper-like bark of a Melaleuca. Green moss, 

 although it is sometimes used, does not enter so largely into the construction of the nests of 

 this species as it does in those of Acanthisa nana. One now before me has several pieces of 

 string and a small strip of white linen worked into the outer wall. An average nest measures 

 four inches in length by three inches in diameter at its widest part, and one inch across the 

 entrance. They are usually firmly attached at the top to a thin horizontal or slanting leafy 

 branch, and for preference that of a gum sapling, at a height usually from ten to twenty feet 

 from the ground; occasionally they are placed within hand's reach, but never on the ground. 



Ai 15 



STRIl'ED-CROWNED THORN-BILL. 



