.312 .1 risif to ail Indian JIiccl. 



form of small funnel traps of reed stems roughly covered over 

 with weeds, and set in gaps, left a series of parallel fences 

 about five feet apart, of neat little reed screens. A small 

 inferior fish is all that is caught, and this is used by the fishermen 

 (or food; it is too poor for sale. A small boy was setting 

 numberless nooses of horsehair in some reeds near by, for any 

 small water l)ird that might be caught ; all species go into the 

 pot alike. 



1 liese patches of watergrass proved to Ijc full of the 

 Eastern Baillon's Crake {Porcaiia piisilla) which the men said 

 had only just arrived. As the boats moved along the little 

 Crakes rose from the grass in all directions flying weakly for 

 some ten to twenty yards and then flopping back into the cover. 

 In one or two places where flooded patches of rice were near 

 enough to afford good feeding they were very numerous. 



At length we reached the belts of Bullrush and found that 

 they had their own particular fauna. The most noticeable 

 species was the Striated Weaver (Ploccus Jiuuigar). These 

 birds were very abundant and breeding in small loose 

 colonies. As we poled through the rushes we came on the 

 nests in all directions. These are built in rather a curious 

 manner. The tips of some twenty reeds growing a small 

 distance apart are bent over inwards so as to form the radii of 

 an irregular circle, and at the centre, where they meet, a typical 

 Weaver's nest of fine shreds of reed is constructed on the ends 

 of the reeds and holding them all together. The nest is not 

 sking from the reeds, but they pass in and out through the 

 walls of the structure. The nest is thus in the centre of an 

 elastic framework which gives easily to the wind and holds the 

 nest well clear of the water. In shape the actual structure 

 is much the same as that of the common Ploccus baya of dry 

 land, but the entrance funnels are much shorter — only two or 

 three inches in length. The breeding season was apparently 

 ■ust beginning, as 1 could find only one or two nests 

 V ith eggs or chicks. The majority were half-built, the 

 strips of material still green; many half-built nests were, 

 however, dry and faded, and it appears as if many, for some 

 cause, are abandoned by their builders — perhaps through 

 dissatisfaction with the spring of the supporting reeds. The 

 Weavers were flying in twos and threes all over the place, and 



