YELLOW-BELLIED SHRIKE-TIT. 
well fledged young wei’e being fed as late as January. On October 13th we 
sat watching a pair of these birds in the top of a sapling and it was amazing 
to see the number and size of the branchlets that were nipped off. This 
appears to be done in sheer wantonness and not for the sake of food, although 
that is obtained in the tree tops. In the summer months they consume great 
numbers of the cockchafer beetle and the rapidity with which they sever 
the body from its casing is marvellous.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me: “ The Shrike-Tit is nowhere a 
common bird, but is generally met with moving about in the timbered country 
in small family parties of four or five, or else in pairs. They are very useful 
birds in the forest, for they break open the galls upon the leaves and stems 
and devour the grubs which cause the swellings. The noise caused b} r these 
birds pulling off the bark from the trees when in search of insects can be heard 
quite a distance away. They have a great habit of swinging their bodies 
from side to side and calling loudly while doing this ; they are nearly always 
on the move and very restless. Their call has many notes, some very monot¬ 
onous. The nest is generally placed at the top of a tapering sapling, and at 
times they strip off all the surrounding leaves, but in my experience this is 
rarely done. The nest is cup-shaped, deep, composed of cobwebs, fibres, grass 
and rootlets strongly cemented with cobwebs. Nesting season. Sept., Oct. 
and Nov.” 
Mattingley has written: “ Recently, the pleasant, self-satisfied two- 
syllable note of some Yellow-bellied Shrike-Tits directed my attention to a 
wattle tree, and, on glancing upwards, I observed a pair of these dainty 
birds busily engaged devouring cotton scab which infested the wattle 
tree, and was slowly destroying it. The birds worked from the outer 
twigs, along the branches, inwards to the main trunk of the tree, and 
cleaned off the scale in a workmanlike manner, uttering as they proceeded 
along the boughs, notes of pleasure, and raising and lowering their large 
crests. For two days I observed ‘ Nature’s tree-sprayers ’ and estimated 
that the work performed daily by each bird, when compared to that of 
a man, was worth to the community at least 9d. Approximately, the value 
of the work performed by each Yellow-bellied Shrike-Tit is £14 per annum 
to the Commonwealth.” 
Chisholm contributed a good account of this bird, chiefly dealing with 
the nesting habits, and from which I quote : “ Shrike-Tits are constant to a 
favourable locality. . . The bird did contribute to the locating of the nest 
by the utterance, while building, of a melancholy montone. . . At times 
this note would be emitted just once, very softly, and again the Tit would 
become more loquacious, and continuously express satisfaction with the world 
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