260 PLOCEIN &. 
The nest, retort-shaped, is a marvel of skill and ingenuity; it is 
composed of strips torn from broad-leaved grasses, which are 
obtained in the following manner ; the bird first notches a blade 
of grass to the required depth, and then after making a similar 
nip higher up, catches the grass firmly at the lower notch and 
flies off, taking the strip with it. In Bombay, the nests are gene- 
rally suspended from the tips of acacia trees, often overhanging a 
river, tank, or well. 
I have never seen a nest composed of any other material than 
grass, but Jerdon speaks of strips of plantain leaves and _ strips 
torn from leaves of cocoanut and date palms being used. After 
the eggs are laid, and the female has commenced to sit, the male 
often continues to prolong the tubular entrance, and I have seen 
nests, having it at least eighteen inches in length. I cannot under- 
stand how Jerdon and Hume conclude that two is the normal 
number of eggs, as I have examined some scores of nests and have 
never found less than four incubated eggs, and have frequently 
found five or six. The eggs vary both in size and shape, but are 
typically longish ovals, pointed at one end, and are dead _glossless 
white in color ; they average about 0°82 inches in length by 0:59 
in breadth. 
Ploceus manyar, Horsf. 
695.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 348; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 495; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 
Vol. IX, p. 415 ; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 181 ; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 128. 
THE STRIATED WEAVER Birp. 
Length, 58; expanse, 9; wing, 2°75; tail, 1°75; tarsus, 0°75; 
bill at front, 0°9. 
Bill black during the breeding season, at other times pale 
horny-fleshy ; irides light brown ; legs fleshy. 
The male in full breeding dress has the crown of the head 
intense yellow ; lores, cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, throat, and neck, 
brownish-black ; back, wings, and tail, brown ; the feathers of the 
back with a mesial dark streak, those of the primaries and _ tail 
edged with yellowish ; rump streaked like the back ; upper tail- 
coverts rufescent ; beneath from the throat whitish, tinged with 
fulvous, and streaked on the breast and flanks with dusky-black. 
The male in winter dress is clad like the female, and has the 
head brown, streaked like the back, a pale yellow supercilium, 
and a small yellow spot behind the ear-coverts ; the chin and 
throat are whitish, and the streaks on the lower surface less 
developed. 
The Striated Weaver-Bird occurs in suitable localities through- 
out the Presidency. It is a permanent resident, but only breeds 
in the vicinity of large tanks or rivers, whose banks are fringed 
with reeds or rushes, to the tops of which the nests are attached. 
