346 BIRDS OF INDTA. 



one side. If then taken from the tree, and reversed, the nc-t hr.s 

 the appear.ince of a basket with its handle, but less so in this than 

 in the next two species, which have seldom any length of support 

 above. Various authors have described this loop or bar as peculiar 

 to the male nest, or sitting nest, wliereas it exists primarily in all, 

 and. is simply the point of separation between the real nest and 

 the tubular entrance, and, being used as a perch both by the old 

 birds and the young (when grown sufficiently), requires to be very 

 stronsr. Up to this time both sexes have worked together indis- 

 criminately ; but when this loop is completed, the female takes up 

 her seat on it, leaving the cock bird to fetch more fibre and work 

 from the outside of the nest, whilst she works on the inside, drawing 

 in the fibres pushed through by the male, re-inserting them in tlieir 

 proper place, and smoothing all carefully. Considerable time is spent 

 in completing this part of the nest, the egg chamber being formed 

 on one side of the loop and the tubular entrance at the other ; 

 after which there appears to be an interval of rest. It ia at this 

 stage of the work, from the formation of the loop to the time that 

 the egg compartment is ready, that the lumps of clay are stuck on, 

 about which there are so many and conflicting theories. 'J'he ori- 

 ginal notion, derived entirely, I believe, from the natives,* was 

 that the clay was used to stick fire-flics on, to light up the apart- 

 ment at night. Layard suggests that the bird uses it to sharpen its 

 bill on ; Burgess that it serves to strengthen the nest. I of course 

 quite disbelieve the fire-fly story, and doubt the otJicr two suo-aes- 

 tions. From an observation of several nests, the times at which 

 the clay was placed in the nests, and the position occupied, I am 

 inclined to think that it is used to balance the nest correctly, and 

 to prevent its being blown about by the wind. In one nest lately 

 examined, there was about three ounces of clay in six different 

 patches. It is generally beheved that the unfinished nests are built 

 by the male for his own special behoof, and that the pieces of clay 

 are more commonly found in it tJian in the complete nests. I did not 

 find this the case at Rangoon, where my opportunities of observino- 



* See tJiG interesting and almost iinitjue Natural History by a native, Akinir 

 All Klhui (jl'i)rllii, uf tlie Bai/a, in the Asiatic Kesearcin -, vol. 2. 



