56 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the [Ibis, 



odd repairs^ stay by them all the breeding-season, yet make 

 no attempt to lay/' 



They start nesting operations very early ; Mr. Stewart has 

 seen them repairing their nests in October and November, 

 and his men have reported them as being back at their nests 

 even earlier than this. At first, however, their interest in 

 them is very casual ; an odd liour or so may be spent in 

 pulling out and in putting in a few sticks^ and then some 

 days may elapse before any more work is done. Some two 

 mouths may be passed in this manner, by which time the 

 body of the nest is repaired to suit their tastes, then after 

 another interval of rest the more important work of lining 

 their nests with green leaves is begun ; this, if the birds are 

 in earnest about laying, only takes two or three days, but 

 even at this advanced stage the birds often delay their 

 laying, and the lining has all to be done over again. 



The actual laying season is from the end of November to 

 the second week in Januaiy, but most of Mr. Stewart's eggs 

 were taken in the end of December. 



After the eggs have been laid the birds continue to put 

 green leaves into the nest, for eggs have been found which 

 ha\e been much incubated, with fresh green lea\es under 

 them. 



In southern India they appear to make much the same 

 kind of nest, and to place it on much the same kind of tree 

 as they do in northern India, but as a rule the ground on 

 which the tree stands is not broken and precipitous ; whereas, 

 also, in the Himalayas the forest selected is generally moie 

 or less evergreen, in southern India it appears often to be 

 deciduous. 



Mr. Stewart has taken a nest from a tree so covered with 

 creepers and parasites that in spite of its size it was difficult 

 to detect, and also from trees in which it stood out as a 

 conspicuous object visible from a considerable distance. 

 One nest he described to me as having been built on a tree, 

 the extreme summit of which iiad been broken off in a 

 storm, and on the splintered end of the trunk reposed the 

 mass of sticks of whit.'h the nest was composed, 



