PASSERINE BIRDS OF CEYLON. ] 49 



is added to by the male long after the hen has begun to sit. 

 There are generally two, but -not infrequently three, and 

 very occasionally four eggs. They are pure white ovals 

 slightly pointed at the small end. Average size • 79 by • 57. 



Ploceus manyar manyar. 

 The Striated Weaver Bird. 

 Ploceus manyar (Oates, Vol. II., p. 179 ; Legge, p. 646). 



Description. — Male in breeding plumage. Top of head 

 rich yellow ; remainder of upper plumage, including wings 

 and tail, deep blackish -brown, with tawny margins to the 

 feathers ; cheeks, ear coverts, sides of neck, and throat 

 brownish -black ; chest and flanks tawny -brown with blackish 

 shaft -stripes, which are broadest on the chest ; centre of 

 abdomen, vent, and under tail coverts whitish. Both the 

 amount of striation and the depth of colour on the lower 

 parts var5^ 



Males in off season and females at all times. Plumage of 

 head and upper parts blackish-brown with tawny edges ; a 

 light stripe over the eye ; the lower part of the cheeks and 

 throat yellowish-white ; breast and flanks striated as in the 

 breeding male. 



Bill, in breeding males, bluish-black, paler at the gape, in 

 females and non-breeding males yellowish horn -colour ; iris 

 brown ; legs flesh-colour. 



Length 5 ' 75 ; wing 2 • 75 ; tail 1 • 8 ; tarsus • 75 ; bill from 

 gape "65. 



Distribution. — The striated Weaver Bird is found throughout 

 the Indian Empire, and extends south-east to Java. It is 

 divided into several sub-species. Its occurrence in Ceylon is 

 distinctly local. It is abundant among the reed beds of the 

 tanks and swamps of the Tangalla district, and I have found 

 colonies in similar reed beds at one or two tanks in the 

 Puttalam District. It probably occurs in various other 

 suitable localities in the low-country. 



Habits. — In Ceylon this species confines itself to the vicinity 

 of reed beds in swamps and tanks. Like the last species, it 



