PLOCEUS. 11 



all, and it is indeed a marvel of skill, as elegant in its form as sub- 

 stantial in its structure, and weatherproof against the downpour 

 of a Malabar or Burmese monsoon. 



" It is very often suspended from the fronds of some lofty palm 

 tree, either the palmyra, cocoanut, or date, but by no means so 

 universally as Mr. Blyth would imply ; for a babool or other 

 tree will often be selected in preference to a palm growing close 

 by, as I have seen v\ithin a few miles from Calcutta on the banks 

 of the canal. Very often a tree overhanging a river or tank, or 

 even a large well, is chosen, especially, as Tickell says, if it have 

 spreading branches and scanty foliage. In India I have never seen 

 the Baya suspend its nest except on trees, but in some parts of 

 Burma, and more jmrticularly in Rangoon, the Bayas usually 

 select the thatch of a bungalow to suspend their nests from, 

 regardless of the inhabitants within. In the cantonment of Ean- 

 goon very many bungalows may be seen with twenty, thirty, or 

 more of these long nests hanging from the end of the thatched 

 roof ; at one house in w hich I was an inmate a small colony 

 commenced their labours towards the end of April, and in August, 

 when I revisited that station, there were above one hundred nests 

 attached all round the house ! In India, in some localities, they 

 appear to evince a partiality to the neighbourhood of villages and 

 dwellings ; in other places they nidificate in the most retired spots 

 in the jungle, or in a soHtary tree in the midst of some large patch 

 of rice cultivation. 



" The nest is frequently made of grass of different kinds plucked 

 when green, sometimes of strips of plantain- leaf, and not unfre- 

 quently of strips from the leaves of the date-palm or coacoanut ; 

 and I have observed that nests made of this last material are 

 smaller and less bulky than those made with grass, as if the little 

 architects were quite aware that with such strong fibre a less 

 amount of material was necessary. The nest varies much in the 

 length both of the upper part or support, and the lower tube or 

 entrance ; the support is generally solid from the point whence it 

 is hung for 2 or 3 inches, but varies much both in length and 

 strength. When the structure has advanced to the spot where 

 the birds have determined the egg compartment to be, a strong 

 transverse loop is formed, not in the exact centre but a little at 

 one side. If then taken from the tree and reversed, the nest has 

 the appearance 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, <fec., described this loop or bar as peculiar 

 to the male or setting nest, whereas 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 strong, tip 

 to this time both sexes have worked indiscriminately; but w-hen 

 this loop is completed, the female takes up her seat on it, leaving 

 the cock bird to fetch more fibre and \^oi'k from the outside of 

 the nest whilst she works on the inside, drawing in the fibres 



8* 



