CHAPTER VI. 



Creek Lovers and Others. 



THE White-browed Scrub Wren and the Brown Tit 

 are two inhabitants of the creek-bank under- 

 growth, whether it be in the suburban area or 

 further afield. Curiously enough, either by acci- 

 dent or by some real afl^inity between the species, we have 

 usually found the two nesting close to each other. Certain 

 of their call-notes, also, are not dissimilar, and for these 

 reasons the species are always associated in our minds. 

 When one seeks their homes, however, a point of difference 

 at once arises. The Brown Tit builds in a position chosen 

 apparently at random, and showing little desire for con- 

 cealment. The Scrub Wren, on the other hand, is most 

 artful in this matter, and more than once have we spent a 

 considerable time searching the damp undergrowth for a 

 nest, the position of which we knew to within a few inches. 

 In appearance the birds are very little alike. The Brown 

 Tit is much the smaller. Its general colour is olive-brown, 

 shading to a warm rufous brown towards the base of the 

 tail. Its breast is a lighter shade of grey streaked con- 

 spicuously with darker markings. The "Brownie," as we 

 usually name it, feeds on insects, mostly in small saplings, 

 and in the higher branches of small shrubs. It is never at 

 rest. 



Notwithstanding rather confiding ways under ordinary 

 circumstances, we have never found the bird a particularly 

 easy subject photographically. The few pictures we have 

 been able to obtain have cost us considerable time and 

 trouble. The main feature of its resistance to the photo- 



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