84 



OKIOLID.E. 



breeding by Mr. E. Olive, and Messrs. Robert and I'rank Hislop. In the Australian Museum 

 collection it is represented by a number of skins obtained at Cape York by Mr. J. .\. Thorpe, 

 and specimens procured at Cairns by Mr. K. Broadbent and Messrs. E. J. Cairn and Robert Grant. 

 Mr. G. Masters also obtained a female on Palm Island, some distance south of the Herbert 

 River, the soutliern limit of its range. In a north-westerly direction it has been recorded from 

 the mouth of the Norman River, which flow-s into the Gulf of Carpentaria, in a collection of 

 birds formed there by Mr. Gulliver. I can find no record of it being observed west of this 

 locality, and neither of the large collections formed by Mr. .\le.\ander Morton at Port Essington 

 and Port Darwin, contained an example of this species. Mr. A. Zietz, however, has forwarded 

 me a list of birds that were collected in the Northern Territory by the late Mr. F. Schultze, 

 and received at the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, in March, 1870. They were identified 

 by the late Curator, Mr. F. Waterhouse, and among them are included ten specimens of 

 Sphecothens flavivcntris. In a paper on the collection of birds made by Dr. Loria, near Port 

 Darwin," Count Sahadori refers a single specimen obtained as a female of .S". maxiUaris. I 

 believe, however, that it will pro\e to belong to the present species. It is remarkable that this 



bird, so common on the Cape York Peninsula, is not 

 found in New Guinea, although easy access is given 

 between the latter island and tlie .Vustralian continent 

 through the numerous islets dotted about the interven- 

 ing hundred miles expanse of Torres Strait. Singular, 

 too, that it should be fountl in tin; Ke Islands, in the 

 Handa Sea, about eight hundred miles in ,1 north- 

 westerly direction from Cape York, and yet be absent 

 in the intermediate .\ru Islands. 



At Cairns, in North-eastern (Hieensland, Mr. R. 

 Grant informs me, the \'ellow-breasted Fig-birds were 

 seen in the tall fig-trees feeding in company with other 

 species; and the stomachs of those he examinee! con- 

 tained various kinds of wild fruits and berries. 



Relative to this species, Mr. Frank Hislop writes 

 to me as follows: — "In the Hloomfield River District, 

 the Yellow-breasted Fig-bird breeds only in the open 

 forest lands. The nest is an open shallow structure, 

 formed of long pieces of the stems of climbing plants 

 and twigs, and is generally attached to the end of a drooping branch of a blackbutt-tree, 

 from thirty to fifty feet from the ground. Frequently several pairs build in the same tree, 

 and often in company with the Helmeted Friar-bird and Drongo-shrike. Three is the usual 

 number of eggs laid for a sitting, but on one occasion I found a nest containing four. 

 The months of October, November, December, and January constitute the usual breeding 

 season." 



The nest is an open, shallow, and neatly made structure of a deep saucer-shape, and is 

 formed of long pliant stems and tendrils of climbing plants, similar to that of S. maxiUaris; and, 

 like the nest of that species, it is of so scanty a nature that when it contains eggs they 

 are visible through the bottom of the nest. .\n average nest measures externally five inches 

 in diameter by two inches and a half in depth; the inner cup three inches and a half in 

 diameter by two inches in depth. They are built at the junction of a forked horizontal branch, 

 and generally where several thinner leafy stems sprout out. 



YELLOW-BRRA.STKD FlO-lilUI). 



Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen., Vol. xxix., p. 505 (1890). 



