ACANTHIZA DIEMENENSIS, Gow.

Tasmanian Acanthiza.

Acanthiza Diemenensis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 146; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
Brown-tail, Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land.

 

I pevieve this species, like the Acanthiza Hwingii, to be peculiar to Van Diemen’s Land, over the whole of
which country it is rather numerously dispersed, and where it inhabits forests and open woodlands, but
evinces a preference to low and shrub-like trees rather than to those of a higher growth. It also frequents
the gardens and shrubberies of the colonists; it is consequently one of the commonest and one of the best
known birds of the island. Active and sprightly in its actions, it prys about the foliage with the most
scrutinizing care in search of insects and their larvae, which constitute its sole food. It frequently utters a
rather loud harsh note, which is sometimes changed for a more full and clear strain ; still its vocal powers
are by no means conspicuous. It has a much more lengthened bill, and is altogether a larger bird than the
Acanthiza pusilla, whose habitat seems restricted to the south-eastern portion of the Australian continent.
The plumage of the sexes is alike, and their size and general appearance so similar, that without the aid of
dissection it 1s impossible to distinguish them. ‘The nest of this little bird, which is usually built in a low
shrub, is rather a dense structure, being formed of grasses, fibrous roots and the inner bark of trees, warmly
lined with feathers; it is of a globular form, with a small hole in the side near the top for an entrance,
and is very similar in appearance to that of the Common Wren, Troglodytes Europeus. The eggs are four
or five in number, of a beautiful pearly bluish white, sprinkled and spotted with reddish brown. In some
instances the spots form a zone round the larger end. The medium length of the eggs is eight lines and a
half, and breadth six lines.

Independently of the task of incubating its own offspring, this species very frequently has to perform the
additional labour of hatching and rearing the young of the Bronze Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus), whose single
ege or young Is often found in the nest. It is a very early breeder, commencing in August and continuing
until January, during which period two or three broods are generally reared by each pair.

Forehead rufous brown, each feather with a crescent-shaped mark of bright buff near its extremity and
tipped with blackish brown; all the upper surface and wings deep olive-brown ; upper ay reddish
brown ; tail olive-brown, crossed by a band of blackish brown ; cheeks, ‘nro and chest greyish inate, each
feather margined with a broken line of deep brown ; abdomen and tanh tail-coverts ao white, tinged
with rufous, which is deepest on the flanks and under tail-coverts ; bill dark brown; irides lake-red ; feet
brown.

The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.