38 BIRDS OP TASMANIA. 



Briefly descrtbed, the habits of this, one might almost say 

 fam.ous, species are to a great extent dissimilar to those of the 

 familiar Brown Tit, for, whereas the latter species consorts in flocks 

 and frequents the open country, the former is either solitary or 

 goes in pairs and resorts to the beds of creeks and moist gullies. 

 This habit has earned for it the name of the " Creek Tit." 



The distribution of Ewing's Tit has not yet been fully worked 

 out, but it is known to occur round Hobart and Launceston, on 

 the way to the Lakes, and part of the West Coast. 



Mr. H. C. Thompson has furnished me with an interesting note 

 concerning the location of the nest and the nest itself. He 

 states : — " It is always built near a creek, usually in a small bush, 

 near the ground. One nest discovered was in a dry wattle about 15 

 feet from the ground ; the tree was in thick scrub near water. The 

 nest is much smaller than that of the Brown-tail, and is very 

 compact ; it is oval in front, with flat sides ; entrance very small, 

 and often closed when the bird is not laying, making it difficult 

 to find. It is constructed of dead grass, rootlets, and moss, and 

 Uned with feathers and fur. I have seen the egg of the Bronze- 

 Cuckoo built into the lining of this nest." 



LAEGE-BILLED TIT 

 {Acanthiza magnirostris, Campbell). 



Male. — "Upper surface olive-brown; forehead cinnamon- 

 brown, each feather having a crescent-shaped mark of a brighter 

 colour at the extremity, and tipped with dark brown; upper tail 

 coverts reddish or rufous brown; tail marked with a band of dark 

 brown near the extremity; cheeks, throat, and chest whitish, each 

 feather centred and edged with dark brown or black; rest of the 

 under surface light olive-brown, darker on the flanks and under 

 tail coverts; bill dark brown; feet brownish or fuscous. Length, 

 4.25 in. ; culmen, .45; wing, 2.0; tail, 1.6; tarsus* .7 " (A. J. Camp- 

 bell, Emu, ii., p. 202). 



Feinale. — Similar to male. 



Nest. — Unknown 



Eggs. — Unknown . 



Breeding Season. — In all probability similar to that of the rest 

 of the genus. 



Geographical Distribution. — King Island. 



Observations. — This Tit was discovered by T^Ir. A. G. Campbell 

 during a visit to King Island towards the end of 1902. The dis- 

 coverer of this species records that it frequents more the shorter 

 scrub of th° island, away from the watercourses. So far as I 

 am aware, its nest and eggs are still desiderata. 



