MICRCECA 153 



Dr. W. Macgillivray kindly forwarded me llie following description of the nest of this 

 species, together with the eggs, and a skin of the bird for identification: — "Two nests of this 

 species of Micraca were taken by my brother, Mr. A. S. Macgillixray, on Leilavale Station, 

 Fullerton Kiver, North (Queensland, between the 20th and 26th December, 1897. They were 

 built rather low down, on horizontal branches in a patch of Gidgee (Acacia homalophylla) scrub. 

 A nest my brother sent was slightly smaller, but more substantially built than that of Micnvca 

 fasciiians, and of much the same material, the outside being ornamented with bits of bark and 

 lichen attached by means of cobweb." The eggs, two in number, are oval in form, the shell 

 being close-grained, smooth, and lustreless. One specimen is of a pale bluish -grey ground 

 colour, which is freckled and spotted with faint purple and purplish-brown, predominating and 

 becoming darker as usual on the thicker end of the shell; the other is of a warm stone-white 

 ground colour, and in many places the markings, which are of a light reddish-purple are 

 confluent, and intermingled with faint underlying spots of greyish-lilac. Length (A) 0-69 x 

 0-53 inches; (B) 0-67 x 0-56 inches. 



Although I have never seen any specimens from the Northern Territory of South Australia, 

 the range of this species, like many others common to the Gulf District of Northern Queens- 

 land, and the Derby District of North-western Australia, doubtless extends right across the 

 northern portion of the continent. 



Microeca flaviventris. 



YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. 

 MicrcBca flai-igaster, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 1.32; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. 11., pi. 94 

 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 261 (186-5); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 

 Vol. TV., p. 126 (1879). 



Micrceca flaviventris, Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen., Vol. XIT, p. .324 (nom. emend.); id., Orn. Pap. 

 et Molucc, Ft. II., p. 93 (1881). 



Adult male — General colour above olive-brown, sHgldly darker bromn on the head and a clearer 

 olive on the rutnp and upper tail-coverts : lesser and median upper iring-coverts like the back: the 

 greater coverts brotvn, margined ivith olive-brown ; quills broivn, externally edged tvith olive brown; 

 tail J'ealhers broken, margined externally with olive-brown, the inner webs of the lateral feathers 

 indistinctly tipped tvith ivhite; chin aud throat dull white; remainder of the tmder sicrface yelloiv ; 

 the sides of the breast olive-broivn : unde.r tail-coverts yelloiv: bill hroivn, the base of the loiver 

 mandible yellowish-brown ; legs and feet grey ; iris dark brown. Total lengtli. J^S inches, wing S, 

 tail 2-2, bill 0-37, tarsus 0-35. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution. — Northern Territory of South Australia. Northern and North-eastern Queens- 

 land, New Guinea. 



/■ l(^HE Yellow-bellied Flycatcher inhabits the northern and north-eastern portions of the 

 -L continent. The late IMr. E. Spalding obtained specimens in the mangroves near Port 

 Darwin, and numerous e.xamples have been procured by various collectors on the north-eastern 

 coast of Queensland, from Cape York south to the Herbert River. 



The wing measurement of adult birds, obtained in the neighbourhood of Cardwell, varies 

 from 2-95 to 3-3 inches. 



Mr. Frank Hislop writes me: — "In the Bloomfield River District, North-eastern Queens- 

 land, the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is only seen in the open forest land. It builds chiefly in 

 a horizontal fork of a thin dead branch, but not infrequently the nest is placed on the end of a 

 broken off upright limb which is about the same size as the structure itself. It is the smallest 



