ACANTHIZA CHRYSORRHCEA. 
Yellow-tailed Acanthiza. 
Saxicola chrysorrhcea. Quoy and Gaim., Voy. de l’Astrolabe, p. 198. pi. 10. fig. 2. 
Acanthiza chrysorrhcea, Gould, Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV. 
Jee-da, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia. 
This well-known species of Aca?ithiza inhabits Van Diemen’s Land, Western and Southern Australia and New 
South Wales, in all of which countries it is a permanent resident. It is generally met with in small com- 
panies of from six to ten in number, and is so tame that it may be very closely approached before it will 
rise, and it then merely flies off to a short distance and alights again ; during these short flights the yellow 
of the rump shows very conspicuously. 
It commences breeding very early, and rears at least three broods a year. The nest is somewhat carelessly 
constructed of leaves, grasses, wool, &c., and is of a domed form, with a small hole for an entrance. It 
would seem that the same nest is resorted to for several succeeding years ; but the most curious feature con- 
nected with it is, that a small cup-shaped depression or second nest, as it were, is frequently formed on 
the top or side of the other, and which is said to be either the roosting-place of the male, or where he 
may sit in order to be in company with the female during the task of nidification. I have myself found 
many of these double nests, but have not had opportunities for satisfactorily ascertaining the use of the 
upper one. The bird very readily resorts to the gardens of the settler, and constructs its curious nest in 
any low shrub. In Van Diemen’s Land one of the trees most frequently selected for the purpose is the 
prickly Mimosa : in Western Australia it is frequently suspended from the overhanging branches of the 
Xanthorrhcea, and in the district of the Upper Hunter upon the apple-trees ( Angophorce ). The nest varies 
very much in size, being in some instances considerably larger than the one figured. The eggs are generally 
-of a beautiful uniform flesh-colour, but occasionally they are found sprinkled over with very minute specks 
of reddish yellow, which in some instances form a zone at the larger end ; they are four or five in number, 
their medium length being nine lines and breadth six lines. 
This is one of the species to which the Bronze Cuckoo ( Chalcites lucidus ) delegates the task of rearing 
its young. I have several times taken the egg of the cuckoo from the nest of this bird and also the young, 
in which latter case the parasitical bird was the sole occupant. 
The song of the Acanthiza chrysorrhcea is extremely pretty, many of its notes closely resembling those of 
the Goldfinch of Europe ( Carduelis elegans). Its food consists of small coleopterous and other kinds of 
insects. 
The sexes are alike in plumage, and may be thus described : — 
Forehead black, with a spot of white at the tip of each feather ; cheeks, throat, and a line from the 
nostrils over each eye greyish white ; chest and under surface yellowish white, passing into light olive- 
brown on the flanks ; upper surface and wings olive-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts bright citron- 
yellow ; base of the tail-feathers white, tinged with yellow ; the external margin of the outer feathers and 
the tips of all brownish grey, the central portion blackish brown ; bill and feet blackish brown ; irides very 
light grey. 
The Plate represents a nest and a male and female of the natural size. 
