3o8 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



Subfamily — Pachvcephalin^. 



250. — Falcunculus frontatus, Latham. — (129) 

 SHRIKE TIT. 



Figure .^GouXA : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii , pi yg 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. viii., p. 173. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Campbell : Southern Science Record (1882) ; 

 also Nests and Eggs Australian Birds, pi. i., fig. 129 (1883); 

 Ramsay : I'roc. Linn. Soc, N.S. Wales, 2nd ser., vol. i., p. 1146 

 (1SS6) ; North ; Austn. Mus. Cat., pi. viii., fig, 9 (1889). 



Geographical Distrihiifinn. — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria 

 and South Aiistralia. 



Xe-st. — Neat, cup-shaped, deep, with somewhat swollen sides, com- 

 posed of fine strips of bark completely felted all over with whitish- 

 coloured spiders' web, decorated here and there with pieces of 

 greyisli-gTeen lichen or pieces of moss, lined inside with fine grass, and 

 usually situated in a slender fork of the topmost branches of a sapling 

 or tree ( EucaJyptux) in open forest. Dimensions over all, 3 inches by 

 3^ inches in depth ; egg cavity, 2 inches across by 2 inches deep. (See 

 Illustration.) 



Egc/s. — Clutch, two to three ; abnost true oval in shape ; textiu'e of 

 shell very fine ; surface glossy or slightly so ; coloiu', soft white, finely 

 freckled all over^ but more thickly vvith a few blotches added about the 

 apex, with sepia or dark-olive and gi"ey. Dimensions in inches of a 

 proper clutch : (1) -94 x '66, (2) -93 x -65, (3) -93 x -64. (Plate 12.) 



Observations. — This sprightly and showy bird, although nowhere 

 numerous, is distributed over the Eastern half of the Continent, but is 

 probably oftener seen in the southern part of that area. A specimen 

 of its eggs which I took in Albert Park about 1866 is among the oldest 

 oological specimens in my collection. 



I said the Frontal Shrike Tits were nowhere numerous, but I can 

 recollect when a very small boy, about 18.57 or 1858, an imiption of 

 these pretty birds which occurred in the forest to the west of 

 Moimt Cotterell, Victoria. As far as I can now remember, the Shrike 

 Tits came in numbers and perched on a biiish fence surroimding our 

 dwelling. 



Gould records he could neither succeed in procuring the nest of this 

 species nor obtain any authenticated information respecting its nidifi- 

 cation, caused, no doubt, by the difficult places — mostly the swaying 

 tops of tall eucalypts, chosen by the birds to build in. 



Mr. Geo. E. Shepherd, through liis luiboundcd enthusiasm, has been 

 singularly successful in taking sevei-al of the Shrike Tits' nests in the 

 neighbourhood of his nurseries, Somerville. He observed that the 

 female only builds the nest, while the mate sits above her whistling, 



