SPHECOTHERES. 
185 
breed from the beginning of September to the end of December. 
(Ramsay, P.L.S., R.S.W., Vol. vi., p. 576.) 
Hah. Derby, N.W. Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 
Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Dawson River. 
( Ramsay.) 
Genus SPHECOTHERES, VieiUot. 
SPHECOTHERES MAXILLARIS, Latham. 
Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 286, p. 467. 
Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald writes as follows regarding the nidification 
of this bird :—“ This remarkable species, which appears to be 
somewhat gregarious in its habits, I found breeding during the 
latter part of October and the beginning of November in the 
brushes of the Richmond River, where the birds are plentiful. 
The nests, of which several were discovered in adjoining trees, 
are rather slight and shallow, constructed of small thin twigs 
inter woven loosely, not ui dike a large nest of Pachyceph ala juttuvcdis, 
and are usually placed at the extremity of a horizontal branch 
about twenty feet from the ground ; the tree most favoured being 
the Flindersia. Three nests obtained on the 4th of November 
1886, contained each three fresh eggs, which appears to be the 
iegul.li number for a sitting, all quite fresh. An average-sized 
pair of these eggs measure as follows length (A) P25xR88 
inch ; (B) 1-25 x 0 - 9 inch. The ground colour varies from olive- 
brown to dull apple-green ; the spots- sometimes confluent and 
forming small irregular blotches, are of a reddish-brown, in some 
brighter and redder, in others very like those on the eggs of 
Or adieus destructor; the markings arc distributed over the whole 
sui face, but are usually closer together on the thicker end, where 
in some they form an irregular zone.” (Fitzgerald, P.L.S., JV.S. 
W., Vol. ii., Second Series, p. 970.) 
