54 THE USEFUL BIRDS 



40 feet from tlie ground, in the consecutive years 1893-4, 

 and in the same paddock, were obtained by a young member 

 of the Surrey Hills Boys' Field Club. I am indebted to him 

 for both these nests, each of which contained three eggs. 

 One was found on the 4th of December, 1894, and the other 

 in the same month of 1893. Had not the sitting bird con- 

 tinued to sing while on the nest, it would not have been 

 observed. The forest occasionally resounds with its mellow 

 call, which is made of two notes, freely used. 



Nest. — A truncated sphere, beautifully built of grasses 

 covered with cobweb. It is placed in the three-pronged fork 

 of a slight upward branch on the top of a high eucalypt. 



Eggs. — Two or three to a sitting. Dull white, spotted over 

 the greater part of the surface with lilac-grey, portions of 

 which appear as if beneath the surface ; spots more numerous 

 at broader end. Length, 1 inch ; breadth, 0.7 inch. 



SHORT BILLED TREE-TIT 



(Short-billed Scrub-Tit), 



Sinicrornis brcvirostris, GId. 



Suu-cror' uis brev-i-rofi'tris. 

 Smicros, a variety of micros — i.e., small; ornis, bird; brevis, short; 

 rostrum, a beak. 



Smicrornis BREViROSTRis, Gould, " Birds of Australia," fol., vol. ii., 



pi 103. 



Geographical Distribution. — Areas 3, 0, 7. 



Key to the Species. — Under surface pale yellowisli-buS ; upper sur- 

 face dull olive-yellow ; lores, eyebrows, and ear coverts light red- 

 dish-brown ; culmen, ^-inch in length. 



Eastern Australia has one species of Smicrornis, and the 

 western and northern portions of our continent another. 



