120 PLOG'EID^E. 



bottom of the tube of an old one, the upper nest being useless as 

 the passage is closed up. They lay from two to five eggs, and 

 very often only a single young one is found." 



The eggs of this species, as might be expected, do not differ in 

 colour and shape from those of P. laya. A large number of eggs 

 from the Sikhim Terai measure from 0*75 to 0*92 in length, and 

 0-57 to 0-63 in breadth. 



722. Ploceus bengalensis (Linn.). The Black-throated 

 Weaver-bird. 



Ploceus bengalensis (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 349 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ JE. no. 696. 



I have never found the nest of the Black-throated Weaver-bird. 

 I have shot the bird in the same localities (e. g. Sindh) as the last, 

 but cannot tell whether it breeds in all of these. 



Dr. Jerdon says : "I found it abundant near Purneah, also in 

 Dacca, building in low bushes, in a grassy chur overflown during 

 the rains. The nest was non-pensile, and had either no tubular 

 entrance, or a very short one made of grass and more slightly inter- 

 woven than either of the others. Though a good many pairs were 

 breeding in the neighbourhood, the nests were in no instance close 

 to each other, rarely indeed two in the same bush." 



Mr. J. E.. Cripps, writing from Eastern Bengal, says : 



" 18th June, 1878. Shot the pair and took the nest with one 

 fresh egg, all of which I sent to the Editor (Str. F.) for identifica- 

 tion. Erom the oviduct of the female another fully formed, but 

 soft, egg was taken. In front of my house was a small river, 

 which, at this time of the year, had several deep pools at intervals 

 along the bed. The public road ran parallel with the river, the 

 bank of which in one place was about 15 feet high and overlooking 

 one of these pools of water. This sloping bank was covered with 

 brushwood-jungle about 4 feet high, and in one of the bushes this 

 nest was placed. Several twigs had been bent down and incorpo- 

 rated with the roof of the nest, which had no lining. It was about 

 3 feet off the ground. The female flew off the nest and was shot, 

 and the male on coming back from feeding was also shot while sit- 

 ting on the nest. I failed to find any more of their nests ; the 

 one found was the only nest in that clump." 



Mr. Henry Wenden has sent me the following note : " On 

 28th August I found some eight or ten nests of this bird at Bhan- 

 doop, sixteen miles from Bombay, in a space of marshy land (water 

 6 to 18 inches deep) surrounded by rice-fields. They were built 

 on that kind of grass which looks so like young sugar-cane, the 

 blades of which were bent down and woven into the nest. In one 

 case a nest was supported by only four blades, in another by ten 

 or twelve. The tops of the nest were as globular as the entrance 

 of the several blades of grass would permit of their being. None 

 had pensile supports, and I noticed no entrance-tube of more than 



