PLOCEUS. 117 



society. I have never found less than ten nests together, and 

 often of course there are more than ten times that number. 



The same nests are at times used during a second season. I 

 have myself once or twice seen birds busy patching up old nests 

 (the difference in the colour of the fresh grass being conspicuous), 

 whilst others were building new ones on the same tree. Whether 

 the same or a different colony return to do this I cannot say. 



In very fine nests of the ordinary type the tapering suspensory 

 portion will reach one foot in length. The bulb will be 7 inches 

 in length and about 5| inches in diameter one way and 4 inches 

 the other, while the long tubular entrance that the male often goes 

 on building after the female is sitting reaches in one specimen I 

 have preserved to a length of 11 inches, with a diameter of barely 

 2 inches ; and how the birds shoot perpendicularly up these with 

 closed wings as easily as they do without running their heads 

 through the top of the bulb with the impetus they have acquired, 

 and without even (apparently) shaking the nest, is marvellous. 

 As a rule these entrance passages do not exceed 6 inches in 

 length. 



The birds sit very close. One day driving out during the rains 

 at Mynpooree, my eye was caught by a particularly fine nest 

 hanging amongst some twenty others in a keekur tree. I made 

 one of my people climb the tree and bring the nest carefully down, 

 cutting the slender twig from which it was suspended. The nest 

 was laid at the bottom of my waggonette, and on our arrival at 

 home hung from one of the antlers of the many stags' horns that 

 in those days adorned my dining-room. Three days later we 

 became aware of a very unpleasant odour ; it was traced to this 

 nest after some search, and on taking it down I found to my horror 

 a female Baya dead upon two dead half-hatched chicks. There 

 are not many birds that would have thus stuck to their nests and 

 died on their eggs sooner than leave them. 



The late Mr. Home recorded an interesting note on the breeding 

 of this species which I also quote : " This morning (July 7th, 

 1865), as I passed our solitary palm-tree (Phoenix dactyliferci) in 

 the field, I heard a strange twittering overhead, and, looking up, 

 saw such a pretty sight that I shall never forget it. 



" In this tree hung some thirty or forty of the elegantly-formed 

 nests of woven grass of the Baya bird so well known to all. The 

 heavy storms of May and June had torn away many and damaged 

 others, so as to render then, as one would think, past repair; not 

 so thought the birds, for a party of about sixty had come to set 

 them all in order. 



" The scene in the tree almost baffles description. Each bird 

 and his mate thought only of their own nest. How they selected 

 it I know not, and I should like much to have seen them arrive. 

 I suppose the sharpest took the best nest, for they varied much in 

 condition. Of some of the nests two thirds remained, whilst others 

 were very nearly all blown away. Some of the birds attempted to 

 steal grass from other nests, but generally got pecked away. 



