THE SUNBIRDS. 1 LS 
time. The said nest is of a somewhat oval shape and 
hung from the tip of a branch; it has an entrance as 
the side, usually with a projection or eave over it. The 
material used is grass, but the outside is coated with 
cobwebs, and thickly stuck over with dead leaves, scraps 
of bark, and other rubbish, including even bits of old 
letters. The whole affair hardly looks like a nest, and, 
though it is placed low down, no doubt often escapes 
observation thereby. Only two or three eggs are laid, 
white speckled with brown. 
This is to my mind one of the most charming of all 
Indian birds. The male, in addition to his beauty, posses- 
ses a very pretty song somewhat like that of a Canary, 
and he is a very free songster, warbling almost continually, 
even when out of breeding plumage. He is not a sociable 
bird, and two are seldom seen together. In the breeding 
season the flame-coloured tufts which spring from the 
arm-pits are freely displayed, but ordinarily they are not 
noticeable, though I have noticed that in captive birds 
they show up when the owner settles down to roost. The 
male at all events has a strong attachment to localities ; 
I remember one which continually haunted the same two 
or three trees, and habitually sang from one particular 
twig. I noticed a similar attachment to one perch in a 
bird I had caged, which I took home with me in 1900 
to the London Zoological Gardens, this being the first 
sunbird to reach England alive. But as he was in moult 
when I got him, and the completion of the process was 
stopped by the journey, he ee. did not live 
long after arrival. 
