_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
ACANTHIZA CHRYSORRHŒA.
Yellow-tailed Acanthiza.
_Saxicola chrysorrhœa_, Quoy and Gaim., Voy. de l’Astrolabe, p. 198.
pl. 10. fig. 2.
_Acanthiza chrysorrhœa_, Gould, Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
_Jeȅ-da_, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia.
This well-known species of _Acanthiza_ 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
companies 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 connected 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 _Xanthorrhœa_, and in the district of the Upper Hunter
upon the apple-trees (_Angophoræ_). 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 chrysorrhœa_ 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.