Birds of Surithern Kamernn. 45 



from a palm-tree by means of a long " bamboo " (really it 

 was a palm-stalk) with a loop on the end. I made the following 

 note : — " Not an hour after the nests were torn down the 

 birds were busy building again. A few old shells of nests 

 the boy had left untouched, and the birds set to work to repair 

 these. Both males and females were busy at it, though the 

 latter worked so quietly that they were scarcely noticed at 

 first. They seemed to find some difficulty in tearing off the 

 tough leaves of the palm where the nests were, so, giving 

 these up, they went to neighbouring plantations, where the 

 leaves were much tenderer. One was seen to bring a ribbon 

 of plantain-leaf nearly an inch wide, and enter an old nest 

 with it. After the bird had been inside a few seconds, a 

 loop of the ribbon was seen to emerge from the side of the 

 nest. . . . The very beginning of a new nest was seen also. 

 It consisted of a wreath of strips woven together between two 

 separated palm-leaflets, with the rhachis of the frond for one 

 side.'' Thus the birds began with the part of the nest that was 

 attached to the palm-frond, and from this circle they would 

 weave the body or sack of the nest on one side and the 

 vestibule on the other.'' This is doubtless the way in which 

 the nests of all the larger Weavers are constructed. 



It is the males of the Nga'a that utter the incessant shrill 

 chattering song, doing so usually while supporting themselves, 

 partly by holding on with their feet and partly by fluttering 

 the wings, at the entrance to the nest. 



Two eggs are found in a nest. They vary much in 

 colour and markings, but, so far as I have yet seen, both 

 eggs of the same nest are alike. Three eggs that I have 

 saved, from three separate nests, shewing variations in 

 markings and colour, agree remarkably in size, each measuring 

 25 X 16 mm. 



[Three eggs are of elongate oval form and are very slightly 

 glossed. They are of three types, viz. : pure white; bluish- 

 green, sparingly marked all over with spots of umber-brown 

 and blotches of lilac-grey, some of which are very pale ; and 

 lastly white, marked rather sparingly all over with small 

 spots of dull maroon and pale grey. — O.-G.] 



