THE iSESTlNG HABITS OF THE BAY A. »;3t 



that constructive faculty which appeals at this season to have such a powerful 

 effect on this little biid and which causes some of them to go on building tho 

 long tubular entrance long after the hen is seated on her eggs." 



Eha writes (p. 134 of The Cumm-n BinU if Bombay) : " One Ih'ng certain 

 is that for some reason or other the birds often get di.';saii-:fied with the nest at 

 this stage, and give it up and begin another. In every colony of nssts there 

 are several of these balh with a band across the mouth. In them the cock 

 birds will sit in rainy weather, each chattering to his spouse as she broods 

 on her egg-." 



Mr. Home, whose observations are recorded on pp. 117 and 118 of Vol. II of 

 Hume's yedi ai>d E'jgn of hiUuin Bhdx tells of a palm tree fiom which "' hung 

 some thirty or forty of the elegan'dy foimed nests of woven g. ass of the 

 Baya bird." He does not m3ntion seeing any supplementary nests among 

 them : but adds to his desc.iption : " In some instances ths male continues to 

 build for amusement after the nest is finished, not only elongating the tubular 

 entiance, but also making a kind of false nest." 



Legge -wiilei (^B/rdi jf deylon, p. •j44) : '• Many n?sts are deserted when 

 the body is being constructed, both before and after the loop has been formed 

 and. this is, acooid.ng to some wiiters, to furnish the male with a roosting place. 

 This, I think, is an erroneous idea, the pi oportion on such nests is sometimes 

 only 3 or 4 to a laige colony; and it seems to me probable that they aro 

 rejected by the birds on account of some fault in their construclion — the egg 

 chamber too small, the neck not strong enough, or some such weak point." 



'1 he observations of Legge render it clear that eveiy pair does not build two 

 nests. I'lut it seems equally clear that the uncompleted nests are not all ones 

 that have been rejected on account of some fault. 



In the case I have reco.d3d above, the cock Baya did not commence his 

 second nest until the fi:«t one bad been practically completed Moreover the 

 cock, while working at the new nest, continued to add an occasional stiand to 

 the oid one, thus showing that he had not rejected it. Thus al. hough some 

 nests may be rejected when half fini&hed. it is I think evident that many of the 

 supplementaiy nests are due to what Jerdon desciibes as an excess of the con- 

 structive faculty. All who are acquainted with I<ayas living in an aviary know 

 how strongly the nest-building in5fcinct is looted in the species. 



The n3xfc point which requires elucidation is the meaning of the lumps of 

 clay found in the nests. 



As untenable suggestions we may cite that which says that the Baya uses 

 them as whetstones on which to sharpen his beak, and that which declares 

 their use ia to hold the fi.e-flies stuck on them to illuminate the nest. 



" It is," writes Jeidon, " at this stage of the work, from the formation of the 

 loop to the time that the eggcompaitment is ready, that the lumps of clay are 

 stuck on about which there are so many conflicting theoiies* '^ ° From 

 an obseivanon of several nests, the times at which the clay was rdaced in the 

 nests, and the position occupied, I am inclined to think that it is used to 



