THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
the gullies among the mountain ranges ; it is also tolerably abundant among 
the brushes and trees near the brooks and rivulets of the Liverpool range in 
New South Wales. It is very active and animated in its actions, clinging and 
prying about among the branches in search of insects in every variety of position. 
It is a permanent resident in the countries above mentioned, but it is not found 
in Tasmania or Western Australia. Unfortunately I did not succeed in procuring 
its nest, but judging from those of the other members of the genus, it 
is doubtless of a domed form. Its food consists entirely of insects, which 
are procured from the leaves and flowers of the various trees.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me : “A. lineata is fairly numerous all 
through our Mount Lofty Ranges and hunts for its food from the tops of the 
highest forest trees to the ground where I have seen it hopping about amongst 
the grass looking for insects. While at work it utters a most remarkably loud 
call for so small a bird, consisting of one note only. The Kangaroo Island form 
is plentiful in the timbered country of Kangaroo Island and its habits and call 
seem the same as those of the mainland form. They must devour an immense 
quantity of scale and other insects in a day for they are searching the live-long 
day looking at both sides of every leaf, into every crack and corner, often hanging 
head downwards to get to the extremity of some slender and young growth of 
a eucalypt.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe’s notes read : “ A. lineata is also an early breeder and 
foster-parent to the Cuckoo, G. basalis and C. plagosus. Nests have been 
found as low down as five feet, and as high as forty feet from the ground. A 
favoured site is the branchlet of a burnt tree and both birds help in building 
the nest. Incubation takes about twelve days and the young when born are 
blind. They are sparingly clothed in light grey down. At four days old the 
eyes were open and were brown in colour. Gape and mouth yellow : bill and 
feet, light purplish grey. At eight days old the primaries were unfurling and 
were ashy-grey ; back, olive ; rump, ochreous-brown ; sides and abdomen, 
creamy-buff. On November 4th, 1908, they were twelve days old and were 
nearly fully fledged. They were taken from the nest; to sit for their photographs 
and it was interesting to watch the parents feeding them in their turn and 
never once did they feed the same youngster twice in succession. We observed 
three mature birds helped in this task.” 
Mr. E. J. Christian has written : “ Often called the ‘ Hanging Tit ’ on 
account of its favourite habit, hanging on the foliage of the Eucalyptus. It 
is fairly common here in Victoria and can often be heard singing merrily in the 
trees. In this part it is never found away from the Creek, and even there it is 
only found in thickly timbered parts. It has a beautiful song which can be 
heard at quite a distance and not as is commonly the case with the Acanthizas , 
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