46 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS 



the ground, I noticed one at twenty feet from it. New 

 nests are sometimes placed two feet above those of last 

 year in the same shrub. Whin Acacia {A. verticillata) 

 may support them, or a three-pronged perpendicular sapling, 

 or, which is usual, a horizontal light branch. 



Nest. — Cup-shaped ; placed in scrub and near the ground, 

 in a fork or on a limb ; made of bark, covered with mosses 

 and shreds of bark, and lined with grasses. 



Eggs. — Two or three to a sitting. Ground colour deep 

 or light green, with markings of brownish red or tawny 

 brown over much of the surface. Some have a zone around 

 the bulged end. Length, 1 inch; breadth, 07 inch. 



CRESTED SHRIKE-TIT, 



Falciinculus froiitatus, Lath. 



Fal-kung'ku-lus frou-td'tus. 



Falco, a falcon ; cuius, diminutive ; from, front. 



Falcunculus fbontatus, Gould, "Birds of Australia," fol., vol. ii., 

 pi. 79. 



Geographical Distribution. — Areas 2, 3, 4, 6, 7. 



Key to the Species. — Male — Under surface yellow; back olive 

 green ; throat black ; head crested ; secondaries graduated ; 

 culmen strongly curved downwards. 



Female — Throat green and not black as in male. 



The eastern and western sides of the continent have each 

 one species of shrike-tit, and Central Australia is visited 

 by the eastern bird. It seems to me the birds of the 

 western colony have all travelled from the eastern side — 

 some through the north, others through the south, and 



