OF VICTORIA. 55 



of birds to rear a family. The first brood was breakfasted 

 on by a fox, which naturally left nobody at home. The 

 second clutch of three eggs would not hatch out on the 

 sixteenth day of sitting, so a third clutch of equal number 

 was placed upon these, with material between. These 

 hatched out on the eighteenth day from the laying of 

 latest eggs. 



Nest. — Dome shape, side entrance ; suspended in growing 

 bracken fern or grass, or in the loose bark of the trunk of 

 a large gum. It is made of bark and grass, and lined with 

 feathers or other soft material available. 



Eggs. — Three or four to a sitting ; white, faintly spotted 

 at the larger end with pale reddish-brown and purplish- 

 brown. Length, 0*6 inch ; breadth, 0*45 inch. 



BROWN TIT, 



Acantliiza pusilla, Lath. 



A-kan'thi'zd pusil'd. 

 AkanthiSy a linnet ; piisilla, very small. 



AoANTHizA PUSiLLA, Gould, "Birds of Australia," fob, vol. iii., 



pi. 53. 



Geographical Distribution.— Areas 3, 4. 



Key to the Species. — General appearance light olive-greenish; 

 band on tail subterminal ; throat ashy-white ; head like back, 

 except scaly feathers on forehead ; throat and breast perceptibly 

 streaked with dusky black ; upper tail coverts reddish, con- 

 trasting with upper parts of body ; no white tips to tail 

 feathers ; forehead pale rufous, with dusky brown tips to 

 feathers ; flanks light fulvous-brown. Wing, 2 inches ; tail, 

 1 '75 inches. 



The little Brown Tit is a bird you will often find located in 

 the Melaleuca. Although it is very small and difiicult of 



