Vol. XVI 



XVI. J Howe, The Acayithiza or Tit-Warhlers. 1 73 



of southern Victoria, and is always placed in a turpentine bush, 

 usually about 18 inches or 2 feet from the ground. This bush 

 usually grows in the more open parts of the scrub or on small 

 grassy plains. The eggs, too, are hardly distinguishable from 

 those of the southern bird, but are a trifle larger. The call notes 

 of the birds are, however, very different. A nest I found of this 

 bird on 15th September, 1913, contained one egg, and on the i8th 

 I flushed the bird from the nest and took a set of three fresh eggs. 

 The rufous rump and white-tip])ed tail feathers were very con- 

 spicuous as the bird flew. 



Mathews, in dealing with Acanthiza nana, gives the type locality 

 as New South Wales, and adds A. n. mathewsi for Victoria and 

 South Australia and A. n. pygmea of Mallee districts of Victoria. 

 A. n. viafJu'wsi is the smallest and brightest of the Tit-Warblers 

 in southern Victoria, and is very plentiful at the You Yangs, near 

 Geelong. During last September I found this species breeding, 

 one nest being built in a pine tree, and another, containing young, 

 built in the top of a small flowering Golden Wattle (.4. fycnantha). 

 Mr. H. A. Purnell, of Geelong, finds it breeding very freely in 

 the Geelong Botanical Gardens. The nest is very beautifully 

 made, not quite so neat as, but much smaller than, that of A. 

 lineata. The eggs of this bird are usually three in number, and, 

 unlike those of any of its congeners. At Tailem Bend, in South 

 Australia, I saw a bird in some Murray pines that was j^robably 

 referable to A. pygmea of Milligan. 



Under the sjoecies A. lineata (Gould, 1837), North says: — 

 " Specimens from Mount Lofty Ranges, near Adelaide, where this 

 species is very common, are richer and darker in colour, especially 

 on the under surface, than examples from New South Wales, where 

 the type was obtained." Mathews gives the type locality as 

 Mount Lofty, South Austraha (Gould, " Synopsis of the Birds of 

 Australia," 1838). He named five sub-species, one of which, .4. 

 lineata cJiandleri, is the Victorian representative. In southern 

 Victoria this bird is probably as common as Geobasileus chrysorrhoits 

 sandlandi, if not more so. Its notes are unlike those of any other 

 Victorian Tit- Warbler, and, when seen in company with A. piisilla 

 macularia, the striped crown is sufficient to distinguish it. The 

 nest of this bird is one of the most beautiful of Tit-Warblers' nests, 

 and is very neatly made. It is usually placed fairly low down 

 in a sapling, but I have taken eggs from one that was built in 

 some suckers within a foot of the earth ; others I have seen were 

 placed at an altitude of about 50 feet. The breeding season com- 

 mences early in August and lasts until December, and two broods 

 are reared. At Ringwood, September, 1914, I found a nest in a 

 sapling on which the bird was sitting. On examination the nest 

 was found to contain six eggs, probably two sets laid by the same 

 bird, as three eggs were partly incubated and dried up and three 

 were perfectly fresh. 



Acanthiza tiropygialis uropygialis (Gould, 1837), occurs in New 

 South Wales, and the Victorian representative, A. u. ruthergleni 



