THE SCKUB-WEENS 



319 



Small-MUed Tit, A. tenuirostris. — South and West Australia. Closely 

 allied to A. reguloides, but is smaller in size, lias no buff colouring on 

 the rump, and lacks the pale buff bases to all the tail feathers. 

 Length 3.5 inches, wing 1.9, tail 1.5, tarsus 0.65. 



Mr. De Vis has described two other forms of these little birds, one from 

 Oharleville, in the interior of Queensland, A. modesta, and one from 

 the Bellenden-Ker ranges in Eastern Queensland, A. Tcatherina. 



Genus Sericornis. Scrub-Wrens. 



Tail quite even. Tarsus plain. 



Mainly Australian with one species in the Aru Islands and 

 another in New Guinea. Rather larger birds than the Tits, from 

 4.5 to 5.5 inches in total length, living in the well-shaded and 

 watered gullies of the brushes or fern gullies, where they feed 

 on the insects which they find about the fallen and decaying logs 

 and the moss-covered stones. They are plain plumaged birds, 

 and utter pleasing but simple notes, an "inward warbling." 

 The nests are dome-shaped, composed of mosses, rootlets, fern, 

 and are cosily lined with feathers or hair; in some species 

 suspended from a drooping bough, in others hidden under the 

 shelter of a grass tuft or a bush. The eggs, three, chocolate- 

 brown in S. harbara (atreogularis) , reddish-white in most, 

 bluish-white in S. magnirostris, with a zone of darker spots 

 around the large end of the egg. 



A. — Tail feathers without subterminal black band. 



1. The Red-Throat, S. hrunnea. — Australia, except North. Throat bright 



rufous; tail feathers broadly tipped with white. Length 4.6 inches. 



2. The Yellow-throated Scrub-Wren, ;S. barbara {cUreogularis) . — Eastern 



Australia. Throat bright yellow; no white tips to tail feathers; lores 

 and ear-coverts black. Length 5 inches. 



3. The Large-billed Scrub-Wren, S. magnirostris. — Eastern Australia. 



Throat whitey-brown ; no white tip to tail feathers; above uniform 

 olive-brown. Length 4.8 inches. 



B. — Tail feathers with a dark subterminal band. 

 1. White edging or tip to the tail feathers. 



The Buff-breasted Scrub-Wren, S. Icevigastra. — Northern Australia. 

 Throat, breast, and abdomen pale yellow; base of forehead black. 

 Length i inches. 



