PLOCKiN.i:. o49 



whitish, tinged witli I'ulvou^, and streaked on the breast and 

 flanks with dusky black. 



Bill black ; irides light brown ; legs fleshy. Length about 5-^^ 

 inches ; extent 9 ; wing 2f ; tail If ; bill at front -^-^ ; tarsus | ; 

 stretch of foot 1|. 



The male in winter dress is clad like the female, and has the 

 head brown, streaked like the back, a pale yellow supercilium, and 

 a small yellow spot behind the ear-coverts ; the chin and throat arc 

 whitish, and the streaks on the lower surface less developed. The 

 bill is pale horny fleshy. 



This species of Weaver-bird is found in suitable localities, 

 throughout all Northern India, spreading into Central India, and 

 more rarely to the Dcccan. It does not appear to occur in the 

 N. W. Provinces. It is also found, and perhaps more abundantly, 

 in Assam, Burmah, Malacca, and some of the Islands. It chiefly 

 frequents long grass and reeds on the banks of rivers and jheels, 

 and was hence named by Buchanan Hamilton Loxia typliina. It 

 invariably breeds among high reeds, and usually in places liable 

 to be inundated ; and, as the breeding season is during the rains, 

 the nest is thus unassailable except from the water. The nest is 

 fixed to two or three reeds, not far from their summit, and the 

 upper leaves are occasionally turned down and used in the con- 

 struction of the nest, which is, in all eases that I have seen, made 

 of grass only. The nest is non-pensile, that is to say, it is fixed 

 directly to the reeds, without the upper pensile support that the 

 nest of the last species has ; and, in some cases, the eggs are 

 laid before any tubular entrance is made, a hole at the side near 

 the top forming the entrance. This, however, is often, but not 

 always, completed during the incubation of the female ; and, in 

 other cases, a short tubular entrance is made at first, in a very 

 few, prolonged to a foot or more. I have found the eggs in this 

 case, as in the last, to be generally two in number, three in a few ; 

 and in one nest I found five. 



696. Ploceus Bengalensis, Linn^us. 



Loxia, apud Linn^ds— Blyth, Cat. 616— Hoesf., Cat. 784 — 

 Euplectes flavigula, Hodgson — E. albirostris, Swainson — P. 



