THE KHANJAN 257 



Poona — "Very favourite places are the 

 little islands which stud the river (San- 

 gam ) below the Bund ; to obtain the 

 nests one has to wade out. The nests 

 are very massive structures, usually having 

 large foundations of all sorts of rubbish, 

 on which the nest proper is built." 



The European representative of the 

 Pied Wagtail — M. luguhris — has been 

 known to utilise the nests of the Swallow, 

 Robin, and Blackbird for its own pur- 

 poses. Its Indian congener, however, has 

 not been known to do any such thing. 

 But in Hume's Nests and Eggs of 

 Indian Birds (edited by Gates) we find 

 a solitary record of a Grey Wagtail — 

 31, melanope — using a Finch's nest for 

 the foundation of its own building. 



The character and materials of its 

 nest are as various as the site chosen for 

 it. The nest varies from a mere pad to 

 a neat well-formed saucer or shallow cup. 

 As for materials, it would pick up any- 

 thing that is soft, — fine twigs, grass, roots, 



17 



