77 



NOTE ON A TASMANIAN " ACANTHIZA " 



(Bush Tit). 

 [By Colonel W. V. Legge, F.Z.S., late F.L.S.l. 



Gould has figured in his work three species of Acanthizas 

 from Tasraania, viz : the two common and well-known birds, 

 Acanthiza cJirysorrhcea, and A. diemenensis — the " Yellow tail " 

 and " Brown tail" — and athiid, J., etvingi, Swing's Acanthiza. 

 This latter species, figured on Plate 35, vol. iii., B. of Austraha, 

 is stated to differ from A. diemeneiisis in being a slenderer 

 bird, with a proportionately longer tarsus, and in having a 

 rufous band on the wing, formed by the basal portion of the 

 outer ribs of the primary feathers. It has, however, been 

 expunged from modern treatises on Australian Avifauna, for 

 Mr. Sharpe, in his '' Catalogue of Birds," vol. vii., p. 295, 

 unites it with A. diemenensis, and Dr. Eamsay his omitted 

 it from his "List of Australian Birds." Tiiat there are, how- 

 ever, two species of "Brown tail" in this island is, I am of 

 opinion, tolerably certain, but being closely allied and a 

 sufficient series for comparison not being extant in the national 

 collection at the British Museum, Mr. Sharpe failed to recog- 

 nise their distinctness. For many years past but little attention 

 has been paid to the smaller species of Tasmanian birds, and 

 comparatively little scientific work done among them. There 

 is, unfortunately, no carefully formed collection of Tasmanian 

 birds in the skin existing in the colony, and very few field 

 notes have been made on the smaller species of forest birds, 

 save in the direction of oology. The consequence is that such 

 points as the specific distinctness, or otherwise, of two little 

 noticed species like these in question is more than likely to 

 have been passed over. 



Last December, when visiting an out-of-the-way settlement 

 on the Elephant Hill, near St. Mary's, situated about >,500 

 feet above sea level, I met with a solitary bird hopping about 

 the scrub and bushes, on the edge of a clearing, and being 

 attracted by its peculiar note, I procured it, having by chance 

 my gun with me. It proved to be a small Acanthiza, very 

 similar to the common " Brown tail/' or Tasmanian Acanthiza, 

 but differing in having the forehead pale rufescent grey, 

 instead of rufous, and the throat and foreneck with the 

 markings much less pronounced than in the last-named species ; 

 in fact the colouration of that part is almost uniform, the 

 centres of the feathers being also slightly darker than the 

 rest of the web. At the ba^e of the outer w^ebs of the 

 primaries there is a narrow rufous band, similar to that 

 showrn in Gould's figure, which, however, has the markings of 

 the throat more pronounced than in my specimen, owing to 

 the absence of throat markings. I was inclined to look on 



F 



