33^ NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



186. ACANTHIZA D1EMENENS18, Gould. (^21) 



TASMANIAN TIT (BKOWN-TAIL). 



Figure, — Gould: Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iii., pi. 54. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. vii., p. 295. 



Previous Descriptions of £^gs.— Gould ; Birds of Australia (1848), also 



Handbook, vol. i., p. 366 (1865) ; North : Austn. Mus. Cat., 



p. 134 (1889). 



Geographical Dhtrihution. — Tasmania and islands in Bass Strait. 



Nest. — Globular, with side entrance near top ; composed of fine grass, 

 dead leaves, moss, wool, &c. ; lined inside vnth fur and feathers. Usually 

 placed low in dry grass or in heath-like scrub, not unfrequently upon 

 the ground under a fallen tree branch. 



Eggs. — Clutch, tlu-ec ; inclined to oval in shape ; textm-e of shell very 

 fine ; siuf ace glossy ; colour, warmish or pearly-white, finely freckled, 

 particularly in the form of a zone roimd the apex, with reddish-brown 

 and purphsh-brown. Dimensions in inches of a proper clutch : (1) -69 x -5, 



(2) -68 X -5, (3) -68 X -5. 



Observations. — The " Brown-tail," or Tasmanian Tit, is restricted to 

 Tasmania and some of the Bass Strait islands, where it represents the 

 Little Brown Tit of the mainland, but differs from it, as Gould points 

 out, by possessing a more lengthened bill and being altogether of a larger 

 size. 



During my visit to Tasmania, 1883, I had an opportimity of recording 

 the lapse of time between the laying of each egg in a nest of this Tit 

 that was in a hedge near the homestead of " Ridgeside." A delivery 

 occurred every other day, thus:- — First egg, Wednesday, 17th October; 

 second egg, Friday, 19th; and third egg, Sunday, 21st. The nest also 

 contained the egg of Fantailed Cuckoo (G. flabeUifoniiisJ, which was 

 abstracted on the 14th, or before the Acanthiza commenced to lay. 



I once watched a bird commence the construction of a new nest by 

 removing the material from an old nest. Only one bird appeared then 

 at work. 



Tlie late Rev. T. J. Ewing, in his original and necessarily crude 

 " Catalogue of Birds of Tasmania," pubhshcd in the " Tasmanian Joimial," 

 1840, mentions a species of Tit other than the Tasmanian frequenting 

 Flinders Island. However, subsequent authorities have not yet proved 

 the statement. 



Chief laying season September to November, but the entire breeding 

 season is covered by the months from August to January, during which 

 period two or more broods are reared. 



