LITTLE TIT 
27s 
under surface which marks the bh-d out from its 
congeners. 
In the district outside the town its distribution 
is somewhat capricious ; though where once it is 
established it remains the year round, and breeds. 
At the You Yangs it is not uncommon, generally 
keeping to redgum saplings and the large black-wattle 
trees {Acacia decurrens)^ of which there are several near 
the camping-place. At Batesford I once found it 
nesting in a paddock of golden wattle {A, fycnantha) 
and redgum saplings ; the nest was in the topmost 
twigs of a redgum. I have also noted it at German- 
town, and about seven miles out along the Anglesea 
Road, and in wattles at Ocean Grove. Probably it 
will be found to occur in any area where the golden 
wattle has been allowed to attain to an age of ten 
years or upwards. 
Of nests I have seen some half-dozen in all ; not 
that it is not quite a regular local-breeding species, 
but because, of all the Tits', this nest is the smallest 
and hardest to find. One built in a light pine tree 
in the Eastern Park was practically invisible from 
below, the tiny round ball of the nest matching 
exactly in colour the green-grey of the pine-needles. 
Another, also in the Park, was at the top of a light- 
foliaged indigenous shrub, whilst a third was in a 
pepper tree. At the You Yangs the nest is always 
placed at the very extremity of a black-wattle bough, 
usually of a large tree, among the feathery fern-shaped 
leaves. In such a position the nest will pass un- 
