236 NES2^S A.VD EGOS Of AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



irregiilai' markings of a light biowui.sh-red, having also a fow minute 

 linear dashes of the same colour over the rest of the surface. Tlie zone 

 at the tip of the larger end is extremely chai'acteristic ; a few specimens are 

 found without it, but some, which I believe to be the eggs of young birds 

 breeding for the fii^st time, are of a pure wliite, witliout any markings 

 whatever. The average length is 07 inch by 5 inch in breadth. This 

 species has two and sometimes three bioods in a year, stragglers breeding 

 as late as December and Januaiy, and is perhaps more frequently the 

 fostei-parent of Chuhocurcyx plat/osus and C. basalts than any other 

 species." 



I have on one or two occasions foimd a Tit's nest in a cleft in bark 

 of a stringy-bark eucalypt, but I cannot gather from my notes whether 

 such instances were referable to the Stiiatcd or Little Brown Tit. 



190. ACANTHIZA UROPYGIALIS, Gould. (222) 



CHESTNUT-RUMPED TIT. 



Figure.- Gould: Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iii., pi. 56, 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mas., vol. vii., p. 298. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — North : Proc. Linn. See, N.S. Wales, 



vol. ii., 2nd ser., p. 407 (1887) ; Nancarrow: Victorian Naturalist 



(1888). 



Ueayraijliicul Diitrihutiun. — South Queensland, New South Wales, 

 Victoria, and South Australia. 



Nest. — Small, neat, domed or covered, witli entrance at the side ; 

 composed of grass and strips of bark ; lined inside with fur and feathers. 

 Usually placed in a cleft in a hollow tree or stump, at any elevation from 

 two feet to nearly one hundred feet above the ground. 



Egys. — Clutch, three, occasionally fom-; almost oval in shape; texture 

 of shell very fine ; surface slightly glossy ; colour, delicate, fieshy-wliite, 

 finely freckled with light reddish-brown and purpUsh-brown, particularly 

 on the apex, where the marldngs are more congixgated. Dimensions in 

 inches of a single example : -65 x -48 ; of a full clutch (according to 

 Mr. A. J. North) : (1) -66 x '48, (2) -65 x -5, (3) -65 x -48. 



Observations. — The Cliestnut-rumped Tit — a frequenter of scrubs and 

 forests alike — is chiefly an interior species of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 and South Australia. 



To the late Mr. K. H. Bennett's name is attached the finding of the 

 first recorded nest of this interesting Tit, which he informed Mr. North 

 was prociu'ed at Mossgiel, New South Wales, 15th October, 1886. The 

 nest wa«s placed between the upright stems of a thickly-foliaged tree, at 

 a distance of about five feet from the ground. 



However, in 1881, another field observer, likewise now deceased — 

 Mr. R. H. Nancarrow — found the first authenticated nests in a somewhat 



