MUNI A. 127 



to discover the entrance, and the eggs, four to six in number, are 

 pure white." 



Mr. F. E. Blewitt says : " On the 19th July we were encamped 

 in the open forest country in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 western side of the hill-ranges (branches of the great Vindhyian 

 group) lying in the extreme eastern section of the Bhundara 

 District. * 



" In a sugar-cane field not far distant from our camp we found 

 five unfinished, and one all but complete, nest, containing a single 

 egg, of the Black-headed Munia. The parent birds were shot 

 while busily engaged in finishing off the entrance of the nest. 



" This latter was nearly globular, a mass of coarse grass lined 

 with somewhat finer grass, between 6 and 7 inches in diameter. 

 It was more loosely constructed than those of Estrelda fornwsa, 

 several of which we had found in a similar locality, about a mile 

 distant, two days previously. Both this nest and the other un- 

 finished ones were placed amongst, and attached to the cane-leaves, 

 precisely after the fashion of the Green Amaduvat. 



" I may note that again in another similar field, about half a 

 mile distant, we found Munia atricctpilla busy constructing its 

 nest, two of which were finished, but none of them contained 



Colonel Butler writes the following notes on the breeding of 

 this bird near Belgauni : 



" Belyaum, 1st August, 1879. A nest containing six pure 

 white fresh eggs. It consisted of an immense ball of dry grass, 

 coarse exteriorly, fine interiorly and round the entrance, which 

 consisted of a small hole in the centre of the nest upon one side, 

 the whole structure being about the size of a child's bead, and was 

 built in the centre of a sugar-cane field, suspended from the tops 

 of the sugar-cane, and not supported from below as is usually the 

 case with the nest of Munias. The sugar-cane was very tall and 

 dense, and the nest, although a large one, well concealed, and pro- 

 bably it would have escaped notice altogether had I not observed 

 the old birds passing backwards and forwards with grass in their 

 mouths in the act of building. 



" 21st August, 1879. Later on in August I found several half- 

 finished nests in sugar-cane, the thickest part of the crop being 

 usually selected, all of which were supported by and fixed in the 

 upper blades of the plant, so that I am inclined to think that the 

 nest found on the 1st August had been blown on one side by the 

 wind, which would account for its being found suspended. 



" On the 12th September, 1879, I found four or five more nests 

 in the same neighbourhood in a sugar-cane field, within a few yards 

 of each other, containing from five to six eggs each, more or less 

 incubated, with the exception of one which contained a single 

 fresh egg. One nest had been blown down by the wind and was 

 hanging upside down about a foot below where it was originally 

 built, but the old bird had not forsaken it and was sitting upon 

 five eggs about to hatch. The nests were all precisely similar, 



