AESTS AXD ECGS 0/- AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 85 



suspended, and poured forth over our heads beautiful songs not altogether 

 unhko those of tlio English Thi-ush. As in the case of the Yellow Oriole, 

 wo were much too early in the season for eggs. 



Macgillivray, a valuable correspondent of Gould, reported that ouce 

 at Cape York he saw several nests which he (Macgillivray) entertained no 

 doubt belonged to this bird ; nearly all of them were built among the 

 topmost branches of very large gum-trees, which the natives could not be 

 induced to climb. 



However, it was left to Mr. Dudley Le Souef years after to bring to 

 scientific light the nest and eggs. He found the bii-ds plentiful in the 

 open country in the Hloomfield River district, and, as Macgillivray also 

 noticed, often in company with Friar Birds ( Phihmon). 



Mr. Le Souef s own words are : — " We noticed them building on a 

 small wliite giun-tree, on 18th October (1893), and found five of their nests 

 on the tree, also that of a Silveiy-crowned Leatherliead (P. argenticepx) ; 

 they were all built near the ends of thin boughs, and only one could be got 

 to by oui' native climber. We could see from below how many eggs were 

 in each nest, the full clutch being three. Oiu- blackfellow had a long thin 

 stick, and the nests he could not get at, he rolled the eggs out one by 

 one, and I caught them all iminjured in my hat as they fell." 



A field note, kindly sent me from Mr. W. B. Barnard, states that at 

 Bloom field River ho foimd the Yellow-bellied Fig Bird breeding in the 

 month of Januaiy. At the extreme north (Cape York) his brother, 

 Mr. Harry Barnard, in 1896 took the foUowing nests: — In October, four 

 nests, two with each three eggs, and two with two; November, two with 

 each three eggs; December, one with two eggs. 



Usual breeding months October to January. 



FAMILY— DICRURID^ ; DRONGOS. 



63. — Chibia bracteata, Gould. — (132) 

 DRONGO. 



Figure. — Gould : birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii., pi. 82. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iii., p. 236. 

 Previous Descriptions 0/ Eggs. — Campbell ; Victorian Naturalist (iSSg) ; 

 North : Rec. Austn. Mus., vol. ii , p. 14 (1892) 



Geiiijraphical Distribution. — Northern TeiTitory, Queensland, New 

 South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania (accidental), also New Guinea. 



Nest. — Open, somewhat shallow ; composed of a few weather-beaten 

 rootlets and stalks or tendrils of climbing plants, lined inside wth thin 

 wire-like yellowish rootlets. When \'iewed from beneath, sky-light may 

 be seen through the structure. Generally placed in forked twigs at the 

 extremity of a branch of a tree, usually a eucalypt, at the height of from 

 twenty to thirty feet from the gi'oimd. Dimensions over all, 6 inches by 

 4 inches deep; egg cavity, 4 inches across by IJ inches deep. 



