'^°'g„6^'-J Butler, The Scrub-Tit. 1 57 



insects, small snails, and beetles. This was an adult male. The 

 other was the bird I shot for Mr. Campbell. 



I have spent many hours watching this bird feeding and building 

 its nest, and to my mind it closely resembles the Tree-creepers 

 [Ccrthiidce). With its mouse-like movements, it will fly to the 

 base of a tree fern, run rapidly to the top and down the other side, 

 just pausing long enough to grasp an unwary beetle, or some such 

 small object, then off again to another tree, and repeat the 

 performance. 



When building it is very wary, and if it sees anyone watching 

 it will at once begin to put the material which it is carrying in 

 quite a different place from where its nest is situate, and will do 

 this for some time, making several trips and bringing material to 

 do so. This I have noticed several times, and when the intruder 

 has withdrawn for some time it will go on building at the nest, 

 sometimes using the material it has placed in the false position, but 

 more often leaving it where it was first put. They will go a long 

 way for material suitable to their needs, and on one occasion I followed 

 a pair of them for over a quarter of a mile. They had found a dead 

 opossum, and were engaged in lining their home with its fur. It 

 took me just over an hour to find that nest, though some 200 yards 

 of the distance was o})en country. 



Whilst it is feeding its note is a short "Cheep, chee})," but at 

 times you will hear it trilling out a little song something like the 

 Calamanthus (Field- Wren), but not so full or sustained as that 

 bird's note. 



It would be a difticult matter to place any limit to the 

 distribution of this species, as I have seen members of it at the 

 Huon, Carnarvon, North- West Bay River, Glenorchy, Bismarck, 

 New Norfolk, &c., and as high up on the mountain as the Springs. 

 and under the Organ Pipes. 



There is just one word to say in closing, and that is, I ho])e that 

 members and others will not destroy this interesting bird, but will 

 remember that, as the land is being cleared, it will retire to the 

 backwoods, and only leave a few of the more venturesome of the 

 tribe to eke out an existence in some secluded spot. Watch 

 them, note their habits, but do not take their life. 



Stray Feathers. 



Four Curious Nesting Places. — I am sending two photos, of 

 peculiar nesting places. One is the nest and three eggs of the 

 Grey Thrush {Collyriocinda harmonica), in the wickerwork off a 

 demijohn, and the other a nest and two eggs of the Pipit 

 {Anthits). The latter was found on the Casterton Golf Links, the 

 former in the scrub along the River Glenelg, evidently carried 

 there at flood time. I have also had presented to me a nest with 

 four eggs of the Little Crake {Porzana palustris). The nest was 

 placed in an old jam tin in a vertical position, in a clump of 



