006 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



ing creeks, as well as those on the mountains and the brushes. 

 I have frequently seen it in the brushes of Illawarra and Mait- 

 land, in which localities the C. scayidens is seldom if ever 

 found. While traversing the trunks of trees in search of 

 insects, which it does with great facility, it utters a shrill 

 piping cry: in this cry, and indeed in the whole of its actions, 

 it strikingly reminded me of the Common Creeper of Europe 

 {Certhia familiaris), particularly in its manner of ascending 

 the upright trunks of the trees, commencing at the bottom 

 and gradually creeping up the bole to the top, generally 

 in a spiral direction. It is so partial to the CasuarirKB, that I 

 have seldom seen a group of those trees without at the same 

 time observing the White-throated Tree-Creeper, their rough 

 bark affording numerous receptacles for various kinds of 

 insects, which constitute its sole diet. I have never observed 

 this species near the water-holes, and I feel assured it has the 

 power of subsisting without drinking. 



The breeding-season is September and the three following 

 months. The nest is built of grasses, is warmly lined with 

 feathers, and is placed in the holloAv branch or bole of a tree. 

 The eggs are three in number, of a dull white thinly speckled 

 with fine spots of rich brown, and a few larger blotches of 

 the same colour ; they are ten lines long by eight lines broad. 



Crown of the head and back of the neck sooty black ; back 

 olive-brown ; wings dark brown, all the primaries and se- 

 condaries crossed in the centre by a dull buff-coloured band ; 

 throat and centre of the abdomen white, the latter tinged 

 with buff; feathers of the flanks brownish black, with a broad 

 stripe of dull white down the centre ; rump and upper tail- 

 coverts dark grey ; under tail-coverts white, crossed by several 

 bands of black, each of which being separated on the stem 

 appear like a double spot ; tail greyish brown, crossed by a 

 broad band of black near the tip ; bill black ; the under 

 mandible horn- colour at the base ; feet blackish brown. 



The female is precisely the same in colour, with the excep- 



