vil ICTERIDAE 579 
species, commonly build in colonies, the most remarkable instance 
being that of Philetaerus, where an umbrella-shaped mass of sticks 
and straw is formed among the branches of a tree, and in its flat 
under surface holes for as many as three hundred nests are exca- 
vated.  extor makes a somewhat similar joint fabric. In certain 
cases the hen is said to sit in the roughly-fashioned shell, and to 
receive the thin ends of the straws from her mate, as he, clinging to 
the outside, pushes them through with his beak; she then passes 
them through to him again, and so the process 1s repeated in true 
webster fashion. An inner partition is often made to prevent the 
egos from rolling out. The structures are placed in trees or bushes, 
frequently overhanging water, in sugar-canes, reeds, foundations 
of Eagles’ eyries, or—especially by the smaller species—in long 
herbage. Exceptionally they are found under eaves.  Plocet- 
passer mahali makes two “ spouts,” Ploceus baya counterpoises its 
pensile nursery with lumps of clay. The males add to the fabric 
after their consorts begin to incubate, and are asserted to make 
nests to sit in; the hens occasionally lay together, though the 
cocks are not proved to be polygamous. JMunia, Stictospiza, 
Sporaeginthus, and in fact most Indian and Australian forms, 
deposit from five to seven dull white eggs; Ploceus lays two of a 
like description ; Ploceélla two, which have a whitish or greyish 
ground with brown frecklngs; the Ethiopian species about. five, 
either plain white, blue, or green, or of the same colours, spotted and 
blotched with red or purplish-brown. In nests of Hyphantornis 
and Pyromelaena very diverse specimens are often found. 
Fam. XXX V. Icteridae.—This New World group comprises 
the “ American Orioles” or “ American Starlings,’ which are cer- 
tainly not Orioles, though analogous to the Starlings, and allied 
through Dolichonyx to the Buntings. From the Fringillidae they 
are distinguished by the more elongated bill, which has no notch, 
and by the absence of rictal bristles. Dr. Sclater’ recognises five 
Sub-families: Cassicinae, with long, straight, and often large bills, 
widening to a frontal shield; Agelaeinae, where they are conical 
with flattened culmen, being shortest in Dolichonyx and Molobrus ; 
Sturnellinae, where they are more slender; Jeferinae and Quisca- 
linae, where the culmen is rounded, the length and curvature vary- 
ing more than elsewhere. Aphobus and Curaeus have grooved 
mandibles, Gymnostinops a naked space at their base, C/ypeicterus 
1 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xi. 1886, p. 309. 
