BROWN TIT 
273 
To commence, then, with the Brown Tit. It is 
quite usually found in gardens in the town : I once 
saw a nest built in some creeper growing on wire- 
netting only a foot or two away from a library window. 
In the Eastern Park many pairs breed annually. It is 
common along those parts of the shore of Lake Conne- 
warre where there are well-grown ti-trees, and in the 
belts of star-flowered Leftosfermum which grow on 
the shoreside of the coast sandhills it is found from 
Point Lonsdale to Airey's Inlet and beyond. In fact 
you will find it anywhere where there are thickly 
foliaged trees or bushes, from the young pines at 
the You Yangs to those grey shrubs that grow near 
the beach at Torquay. It inhabits the banks of both 
the rivers above the junction. 
It spends its time in the thicker shrubs or in bracken 
or undergrowth near the ground, never haunting the 
topmost branches of tall gums, as do the two others 
of its genus. From time to time it utters a short 
strain of song, sweet and rather loud for so small a 
bird. 
Nests of this species, with eggs, may be found at 
any time from the beginning of August till the end 
of October ; about the end of August, however, is 
the usual breeding-season. The nest is generally 
built in a thick bush within 6 feet of the ground. I 
have, however, seen one in quite an exposed position, 
about 12 feet from the ground, in a banksia ; while 
another, at Bull's Well, was suspended, like the nest 
of the Striated Tit, among the leaves of an over- 
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