240 IVES?-.'; A. YD EGGS OF AVSTnAlIAN BTFDS. 



Nexl. — Oval, domed or covered in, with .small side entrance; composed 

 of fine grasses and strings of bark, interwoven with cobwebs ; waiTiily 

 lined inside with feathers, &c. Usually jilaccd at no gi-eat height in the 

 fork of any tree, sometimes in a cleft in the bark of a tree stem, or near 

 the ground in a tussock of grass. Length, 4 inches ; breadth, 3^ inches. 



Eggs. — Clutch, three to four ; roundish-oval in form ; texture of shell 

 very fine ; surface glossy ; coloiu-, warm-white, freckled, especially 

 in the form of a belt i-ound the apex, with reddish-brown and purplish- 

 brown. Dimensions in inches of a proper clutch: (1) 64 x -48, 

 (2) -63 X -49, (3) -62 x -47. 



Ohser vat inns. — With the exception of Western Australia, the Buff- 

 rumped Tit is found in all the States, especially in the interior parts or 

 in open timbered countiy. However, the bird is not so common as its 

 cousin, the Yellow-nmiped Tit. It has been obtained in the coiuiti-y 

 between Melbourne and the Dandenongs. 



Gould just mentions the nest and eggs, while Dr. Ramsay has gone 

 into interesting details, recording : — " Little or no preference seems to be 

 shown in the selection of a site for the nest of this bird. It is a dome- 

 shaped structure, having a small entrance in the side, and composed of 

 gi-asses and stringj'-bark, &c., lined with feathers, cotton tree down, or 

 opossum fiu*. It is placed in a tuft of grass or low bushy scrub, but just 

 as often among the loose pieces of bark which, ha\ing accumulated in the 

 forks of the eucalypti, hide all except the entrance of the nest. A hole 

 morticed in the side of a post, and the fork of a tea-tree where itibbish has 

 accumulated, alike serve its pui^pose, the shape depending upon the 

 position chosen. The nests resemble those of Afahiriis ri/aneiis both in 

 size and slmpe ; they are, however, much more bulky, thicker, and have a 

 gi-eat quantity of lining, which renders them much wanner and more 

 comfortable. The eggs, which may be taken from August to December, 

 are four in number, 06 to 07 inch in length by 0-4 to 05 inch in breadth, 

 having a delicate white gi-ound, spotted, speckled, or dashed with markings 

 of reddish-brown of various tints and a few of pui-plish lilac-brown, in most 

 forming a zone at the larger end ; the eggs of the young, breeding for the 

 first or second time, are white, without any markings. Tiiis species has 

 three broods during the season, and if the nest be taken will frequently 

 build another in the same place." 



With regard to this Acanthiza, or Tit, in Queensland, Mr. Cliarles 

 Barnard mentions he has never found the nest anywhere but in a fork 

 of a small tree, save one which was built in the crack of a hollow stump, 

 and has never found it suspended from a branch as in the Yellow-rumped 

 Tit. 



A nest I found during the last camp out of the Field Naturalists' Club 

 of Victoria, to the Lerderderg Ranges, was situated in a tussock of gi-ass 

 on a steep sidling. In addition to the usual set of eggs, the nest contained 

 an egg of the Bronze Cuckoo. Date, 9th November, 1899. 



