84 



NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



ground; the eggs can be easily seen through the nest, which is cup- 

 shaped, and measures about 5 or 6 inches across and 1^ iuclies deep, 

 constnicted of roots, rashes, and gi-ass, loosely placed togethttf- and 

 attached to the fork of some leaning limb. The red cedar-tree is usually 

 selected to build in ; the eggs laid for a sitting are from t wo to tlu-ee, 

 and vary gi'eatly both in size and markings. 



" These Sphecothei-es arrive here in the middle of September, and 

 leave again from abovit Janviary 29th to FebiTiary lOtli." 



I svibsequently received a most beautiful set of three eggs from 

 Mr. W. B. Barnard, taken at Crowsdale, Queensland, 8th December, 1897. 



62. — Sphecotheres FLAVivENTRis, Gould. (287) 



YELLOW-BELLIED FIG BIRD. 



Figure — GoxiXA: Birds of Australia, iol., supp., pi. 37. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iii., p. 225. 



Previous Descriptions 0/ Eggs. — Le Souef: Proc. Roy. Soc, Victoria, 



vol. vii., p. 20 (1895); also Victorian Naturalist, vol. xvi., p. 02, 



(1899). 



Geograjihical Distribution. — Northern Tenitory, Queensland and New 

 South Wales, also Ke Islands. 



Nest. — Open, shallow ; composed of wu-e-Uke stalks or tendrils of plants, 

 and lined inside with bro\vnish twigs. The structure can be easily seen 

 through from beneath. Several nests are usually placed in the topmost 

 liorizontal branches of a tall eucalypt. Dimensions over all, 5 inches by 

 3 inches in deptli ; egg cavity, 3i inches across by li inches deep. 



Eggs. — Clutch, two to three ; oval in shape ; texture of shell moderately 

 fine \ surface glossy ; colour, varies from a delicate green to olive-browu, 

 but usually pale or light-green, moderately spotted and blotched with 

 rufous or reddish-brown and piu-pUsh-brown. Similar to those of the 

 Southern Fig Bird. Dimensions in inches of a pair: (1) 1-23 x -91. 

 (2) 1-2 X -92. (Plate 6.) 



Observafiuns. — The Yellow-bellied Fig Bird is usually confined to 

 Northern Australia and some of the islands beyond. However, 

 Mr. S. W. Jackson noticed it in the Clarence district of New South Wales, 

 January, 1890; and another season subsequently, during the same month, 

 he saw numbers of the bird at Byron Bay, where he shot a pair. The male 

 is a beautiful creatiire, its rich jonquil-yellow imder siu^face being shown 

 off to perfection with an pesthetic olive-green coat and glossy black cap, 

 and eyes suiTOunded by bright crimson orbits. The female differs from 

 her lord in being olive-brown with streaked markings hkc her cousins, 

 the Orioles, Total length, lOi inches; wing, 5| inches; bill, 1^ inches; 

 tail, 4J inches ; tarsus, J inch. 



Tlie most striking birds that N'isited the precincts of our camp at 

 CardwcU were the males of tliis species. They often, esjiecially in the 

 morning, perched on the summit of the very trees to which our tents were 



