AStiBY— Field Notes. 11 



cornis nests, except that they are chieflly composed of portions 

 of dead tree fern fronds and roughly, but cleverly, so built in 

 between the hanging fronds of the tree fern that the weight 

 of the fronds keeps the nest in position. Unless the greatest 

 care is taken the nest drops to the ground as soon as the 

 fronds are parted, showing that no attempt is made to attach 

 the nest to the fronds, but trust is put in the weight of the 

 fronds to keep the nest in position. 



The gully visited is a typical '"fern gully," the tree ferns 

 hugging the rivulet, which is almost a cascade, the sides of the 

 gully clothed with dense bushes and larger timber. 



I saw no sign of the Acanthornis, although I waited quietly 

 in the locality for several hours, incidentally, wet to the skin, 

 as there had been a heavy shower, and the ferns and bushes 

 were dripping. My idea is that the birds only visit these tree 

 fern gullies in the upper range during the breeding season, 

 and that during the rest of the year they must be searched 

 for in the dense bushes that clothe the gullies lower down. 

 The old locality near Newtown in Kangaroo Valley was essen- 

 tially a bush gully, unfortunately from the ornithologisfc r s 

 point of view, now mostly occupied with gardens, and the 

 Acanthornis naturally has disappeared from that habitat. 



On the 9th October we unexpectedly met with this bird at 

 an altitude of about 1,500 ft. in a gully known as "The Sidling" 

 near Scottsdale, in North-Eastern Tasmania. The sides of 

 the gully were very precipitous, but covered with dense scrub, 

 below the road a number of bushes had been cut down by 

 some men who were erecting a telegraph line, and it was 

 amongst these fallen bushes that the Acanthornis was first 

 noted, its movements and general appearance were very simi- 

 lar to Sericornis (frontalis) longirostris (Q and G)., afterwards 

 several were seen in the bushes on the other side of the road. 

 They were searching for insects as much in the bushes as the 

 ground. Not once did we detect a call note, but I was for- 

 tunate to hear one trilling out a very sweet little song, re- 

 minding one of the song of a Sericornis, but yet dissimilar. 



Later, on 13/10/16, 1 again met with this bird in "Wenney's 

 Gully" on the River "Don", near the Latrobe, in North West 

 Tasmania. 



This gully cannot in any sense be described as a Tree Fern 

 gully, but was clothed with bushes, myrtle, and big timber. 

 The gorge was very precipitous. Acanthornis were work- 



