26 Insectivorous Birds of New South Wales. 



with spiders' bags or fine green mosses, and warmly lined with finer grasses, 

 feathers, or the silky down from the seed-pods of the " Cotton Plant." 

 Eggs, three in number for a sitting, white, with longitudinal blotches and 

 freckles of dull reddish or chocolate-brown uniformly dispersed over the 

 surface of the shell ; length, 0G5 x 045 inch. All the species of Acantfiizce 

 inhab iting New South Wales are frequently the foster-parents of the Fan 

 tailed and Bronze Cuckoos. The specimen from which the figure is taken 

 is a male, but the sexes are alike in plumage. This species is also known 

 locally in the neighbourhood of Sydney as the " Little Hanger" or " Little- 

 Hanging Dicky." 



88. Acakthiza tteopygialts, Oould. Chestnut- rumped Acanthiza. 



Acantliiza uropyqialis, Gould, Birds of Austr., fol. ed., Vol. in, pi. 56 (1848) ; 

 North, Nests and Eggs of Austr. Bds., p. 135 (1889). 



This species inhabits the scrubby portions of the central and western 

 districts of the Colony. Its nest, which is built in the hollow limb or trunk 

 of some small tree, or firmly wedged between the upright stems of two trees 

 growing close to each other, is dome-shaped, and composed of soft dried 

 grasses and bark-fibre neatly lined with feathers and fur. Eggs, three in 

 number for a sitting, of a delicate fleshy-white, minutely freckled all over 

 with light reddish-brown markings ; length, 0'65 x 0'48 inch. 



89. Geobasileus chrysorrhoa, Quoy et Qaimard. Yellow-rumped 

 Geobasileus, " Yellow-tail," " Tomtit," " Double Dick." 



Acanthiza cfa°ysorr7ioea, Gould, Birds of Austr., fol. ed., Yol. nr, pi. 63 (1848). 



G-eohasileus clirysorrhoea, North, Nests and Eggs of Austr. Bds., p. 141 (1SS9). 



A common and well-known species found all over New South Wales. It 

 frequents gardens and orchards, and is exceedingly useful in ridding the 

 trees of many insect pests. The normal breeding season of this bird com- 

 mences in July and contiuues until the end of December, but nests are 

 sometimes found containing eggs or young ones during February and 

 March. The nest is usually built in the bushy end of a drooping bough or 

 in a thick shrub, and in gardens, frequently in orange-trees, prickly hedges, 

 and the acclimatised pines, Araucaria excelsa and JPinus insiunus. It is a 

 roughly-formed dome-shaped structure, with a narrow entrance in the side, 

 and is composed of dried grasses, strips of bark, wool, cobwebs, the flowering 

 portions of grasses all matted up together, and lined inside with finer grasses 

 and feathers. On the top of the nest is a small cup-shaped depression 

 without any lining, which is used by the male bird as a roosting-place. Eggs, 

 three in number for a sitting, pure white, but occasionally they are found 

 with minute dots and spots of reddish and yellowish brown sparingly dis- 

 tributed over the surface of the shell ; length, 0'G8 x 0"5 inch. This species 

 more often than any other bird is the foster-parent of the Bronze Cuckoo, 

 (Lamprococcyx plagosus.) The open cup-shaped depression or second nest on 

 the top of the lower structure is not so symmetrically formed as figured in 

 Gould's work. Erom this bird's habit of building an open nest on the top of 

 the domed one, it is known locally in the neighbourhood of Sydney as the 

 " Double Dick." 



