112 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



is cut down at this stage and reversed, it will look like a basket with 

 a strong handle. 



As soon as the chamber is finished, the eggs are laid, but the cock- 

 bird goes on completing the tubular entrance, which is usually about 

 six inches long, but is sometimes much longer ; one that I presented 

 to the Society's collection is twenty-five inches and another 

 twenty-four ; both of these are described in the Society's Journal, 

 Vol. II., Part II., page 106. 



A good deal of nonsense has been written about the Baya's nest : 

 one writer affirms that it is commenced at the bottom, which is rested 

 on a leaf ; another recent writer describes the nest as non-pensile 

 when, as every griffin knows, it is a perfect type of a pensile nest. 



Opinions differ regarding the use of the lumps of clay previously 

 alluded to. A poetical rather than a practical notion prevalent 

 amongst the natives is that the Baya uses them to stick fireflies to on 

 dark nights to light up the interior of the nest ; another theory is that 

 the birds use them to sharpen their bills upon. 



Regarding the normal number of eggs, much difference of opinion 

 exists, but I went carefully into this question before (see Vol. II., 

 page 105 of the Society's Journal), and further experience has only 

 tended to confirm me in my opinion, which is that the number of eggs 

 is indifferently four or five, as often one as the other. 



The eggs are pure, dead, glossless white, and vary a great deal in 

 shape and size, but usually they are longish ovals, pointed at one 

 end, and average 0'82 inches in length by about 0*59 in breadth. 



I have myself never met with nests made of any other material 

 than strips of green grass ; but in Ratnagiri Mr. Vidal found them 

 made of coir, and in this case the nests were smaller than usual. 



Mr. Hume and others describe nests made of strips torn from 

 banana leaves and from the leaves of the date and cocoanut palms. 



695.— THE STRIATED WEAVER-BIRD. 



Ploceus manyar, Hors. 



The Striated Weaver Bird, although very locally distributed, 

 occurs in most suitable places in the Presidency. It has not been 

 recorded from Ratnagiri, neither did Mr. Davidson meet with it iu 



