20 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



Northern Sphecotheres ( Sphecotheres flaviventris). 



These birds were plentiful in the open country, and often seen 

 in company with the Friar birds, the bright yellow markings on 

 the breast of the male making him conspicuous. 



We noticed them building on a small white gum tree on 18th 

 October, and, going to the tree again on 25th Octobei', found five 

 of their nests on the tree, and also one of the silvery-crowned 

 leatherhead ; they were all built near the end of thin boughs, and 

 only one could be got at by our native climber. We could see 

 from below how many eggs were in each nest, the full clutch 

 being three. Our blackfellow had a long thin stick, and, the 

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

 I caught them all uninjured in my hat as they fell. The nests 

 were built of vine tendrils and small twigs, cup-shaped, and 

 rather shallow, and, as before stated, could easily be seen 

 through from below. The one I took measures externally five 

 inches in diameter by three inches in depth, internal 

 diameter three and a quarter inches by one and three-quarter 

 inches in depth. The eggs are of a greenish-grey colour, with 

 various sized irregular markings of a brown colour, with other 

 fainter markings of a purplish hue, they both predominate 

 towards the larger end, the eggs are nearly oval, tapering at the 



smaller end and measure A ^^^' x — - inch B Z^ x ~- inch 



16 16 16 16 



^ 21 15 . , 

 C — X — inch. 

 16 16 



This esffic has not been described before. 



-'0& 



Cat-bird (Aibiredus maculosus). 



The curious harsh note of this bird was often heard in the 

 scrub and several nests found ; they seem to prefer building near 

 the top of a slender tree, about fifteen feet from the ground, 

 although on one occasion we found one within two feet, built on 

 a creeper, but that was an exception ; the structure is bulky 

 and composed principally of leaves and twigs, mixed with fine 

 rootlets and lined with finer tendrils, the external diameter of 

 one I took is nine inches, and four and a half inches in depth, 

 internal diameter five and three-quarter inches, and depth two 



