PACHYCEPHALA. 67 



--3 PACHYCEPHALA RUFIVENTRIS, Latliam. 



Bufous-breasted Thickhead. 



Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust. Vol. i., sp. 116, p. 212. 321 // 



The nest of this species is a scanty structure of rootlets or twigs, 

 about four inches across, and usually placed on a horizontal branch 

 of some tree or sapling — a favourite place being near the summit 

 of a Casuarina about twelve or fifteen feet from the ground. 

 The eggs are three in number for a sitting, of an olive ground 

 colour, spotted and blotched with dark umber and brown markings, 

 which form a zone on the larger end ; in a few instances they are 

 heavily blotched with sepia. A set taken at Dobroyde in 1864, 

 measure as follows : — (A) 0'92 x 0-7 inch, (unusually large and 

 heavily blotched) ; (B) 0-85 x 0-67 inch ; (C) 0-87 x 0-68 inch. 



The breeding season commences at the latter end of August, 

 and continues to the middle of December. 



Hab. Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay 

 District, Dawson River, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, 

 New South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South Australia, West 

 and South- West Australia. (Ramsay.) 



3 PACHYCEPHALA GILBERTI, Gould. 



Gilbert's Thickhead. 



Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 120, p. 216. :EZa: JO. 



Mr. K. H. Bennett found this bird breeding in the neighbourhood 

 of Ivanhoe, New South Wales. A pair last year took possession 

 of a deserted nest of Cracticus nigrogularis, and constructed their 

 nest on the old foundation, lining it with roots, strips of fine bark, 

 and grasses ; inside measurement three inches across, and one and 

 five-eighths of a inch in depth. The eggs are three in number for 

 a sitting, and are not unlike large and well-marked specimens of 

 those of Artamus sordidus, the ground colour being of a pale 

 yellowish-bufi" tint ; in one instance (c) spots of blackish-brown 



