THE YEIXOW-RUMPED TOMTIT. 179 



CHAPTER CII. 



THE YELLOW-RUMPED TOMTIT. 

 (Acarttkiza chrysorrhcea, Quoy et Gaim. ) 



This pretty little bird, so well known to almost every 

 grower, orchardist, and farmer, is one of the most 

 valuable of our insect-destroying birds, killing out as 

 it does vast numbers of insect pests; it is found in 

 nearly every portion of Victoria. The Tomtit is a very 

 sociable bird, frequenting public parks and gardens 

 near to the city, building its nests and rearing its young 

 in the prickly Acacia hedges (A. armata) ; also in Pine, 

 Araucaria, Leptospermum, and other plants. The nest 

 is suspended, dome-shaped, with a small side entrance, 

 outwardly composed of pieces of grass, cocoons of the 

 spider ( Voconia^) and erroneously called by the colonists 

 Tarantula and other spiders, pieces of rag, twigs of 

 various plants, rootlets, etc., and lined inside with 

 feathers, cotton- wool, and, in some instances, with 

 rabbit fur and other soft substances. Many of these 

 nests have a kind of dome-shaped opening on the top, 

 in which the male bird is supposed to sleep while the 

 female is sitting on the eggs. The small Cuckoo and 

 the Bronze often deposit their eggs in the Yellow-rump's 

 nest. The Yellow-rump is an early breeder, nests and 

 eggs having been observed by Mr. C. French, Jnr., as 

 early as May, in the Fawkner and other parks near the 

 city. Nests are also found attached underneath nests 

 of the White-backed Crow-shrike (Magpie). 



On the Werribee plains in the she-oak trees (Casuarind) 

 are many Crows' nests, and occasionally placed under 

 these large stick-nests are nests of the Yellow-rumps ; 

 also nests of another valuable insectivorous bird, the 

 White-faced Xerophila. 



