50 Mr. P. W. Munn on the Birds 



in deep water. The nests are seldom close together, but are 

 scattered about singly in the reed-bed ; they are suspended 

 from the tops of several reeds drawn together and built into 

 the upper part of the nest. As is the case with P. baya and 

 P. manyar, the division between the nesting-pocket and the 

 entrance is built as soon as a safe hold has been secured on 

 the vegetation in which the nest is to be placed, and serves 

 as a perch from which one of the birds may work. The nests 

 are more strongly constructed and built of finer grasses than 

 those of P. manyar, and are often without any tubular 

 entrance at all. I have also seen them ornamented with the 

 blossoms of the babool and other yellow flowers. The same 

 clumps of reeds are usually resorted to every season. On 

 visiting some unfinished nests a second time, I have found 

 them totally destroyed : the birds are rather shy, and easily 

 forsake their nests. The eggs, occasionally as many as four 

 or five in a clutch, are laid in August and September. 



39. Ploceus manyar. (Striated Weaver-bird.) 

 A common species in certain large reed-covered jheels, 

 where it breeds in great colonies among the reeds, not neces- 

 sarily in those standing in water. The nests, often built 

 close together, are suspended in much the same way as those 

 of P. bengalensis, but not so strongly constructed, and are 

 composed of rather coarser grasses than that bird's. These 

 nests are also usually ornamented with babool blossoms and 

 some other yellow flowers. Occasionally nests are found 

 among jute and in tall grass. In some cases the tubular 

 entrance is 6 or 8 inches long, but one nest I found without 

 any entrance at all : it contained two eggs sewed up inside 

 it. The birds frequent the same localities annually for 

 nesting, but do not often arrive at these places before August, 

 the eggs being laid at the end of that month and in September. 

 I once shot a snake in one of these nests built three feet 

 above the water, which was here four feet or more deep ; it 

 was coiled round the outside of the nest, with its head and 

 neck thrust up the tubular entrance into the nest. Usually 

 two or three eggs are laid, more rarely four in a clutch. 

 When not breeding the birds assemble in large flocks in tall 



