122 PLOCEID.E. 



I found a nest belonging to a pair of these birds. It was built 

 among some high reeds or bulrushes which fringed one of the tanks 

 at the side of the railway at Jheenjuck Jheel. The nest was fixed 

 to two or three of the reeds near their summits, and was shaped 

 like that of P. bay a, but not so long, and as yet there was no lower 

 tubular entrance. A former nest had been built and abandoned, 

 as a colony of black ants had taken possession of it. When I 

 found the second nest the birds were busy building it, and it was 

 nearly finished. As yet no eggs had been laid." 



Again, " On the 4th September, 1869, I found many nests in 

 different reed-beds of Jheenjuck Jheel. Several pairs had young, 

 but out of one nest I obtained three tolerably fresh eggs, which 

 precisely resemble those of P. bai/a both in size, shape, and colour. 

 Many of the nests found to-day had very long tubular entrances, 

 longer even than the longest I have seen of P. bay a. The body of 

 the nest appears, however, to be generally smaller. Several of the 

 reeds are drawn together, and from this junction the nest hangs." 



Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall says that tbis species " breeds com- 

 monly in the grass along the banks of the Ganges Canal in the 

 Aligurh, Mynpooree, and Cawnpoor Districts. It is a gregarious 

 breeder, and the nests are found in numbers together, though 

 same what local. Tbe eggs are pure white ; the nest is square- 

 topped, woven into the reeds or grass." 



Dr. Jerdon states that this species " invariably breeds among 

 high reeds, and usually in places liable to be inundated ; and as 

 the breeding-season is during the rains, the nest is thus unassail- 

 able except from the water. The nest is fixed to two or three reeds 

 not far from their summit, and the upper leaves are occasionally 

 turned down and used in the construction of the nest, which is, in . 

 all cases that I have seen, made of grass only. The nest is non- 

 pensile, that is to say it is fixed directly to the reeds without the 

 upper pensile support that the nest of the last species has ; and in 

 some cases the eggs are laid before any tubular entrance is made, a 

 hole at the side near the top forming the entrance. This, however, 

 is often, but not always, completed daring the incubation of the 

 female ; and in other cases a short tubular entrance is made at 

 first in a very few prolonged to a foot or more. I have found 

 the eggs in this case, as in the last, to be generally two in number, 

 three in a few, and in one nest I found five." 



Major C. T. Birigharn remarks : " Breeds in numbers at Delhi 

 in the long grass on the banks of the Jumna from July to September. 

 In one patch of grass occupying about one hundred square yards 

 I found on the 5th September thirty-one nests of this bird ; some 

 with full-fledged young, some with fresh eggs, and others in course 

 of construction only. Four was the greatest number of young or 

 eggs I found in any one nest, but the majority contained three 

 eggs or young ones. Although there was a tree in the centre of 

 the grass, none of the nests were attached to it, all depending from 

 the tops of the surpat clumps. 



" One nest I cut down and carefully measured was constructed 



