130 PLOCEIDJE. 



as that from which I took the last batch of five eggs. I would 

 not have taken this nest had 1 known there were only three eggs, 

 but as it was placed on the highest fork of the tree, a lad had to 

 get up and bring it down, although the tree was only some 12 feet 

 high." 



Dr. Scully remarks : " This Munia is common in the central 

 part of the Nepal Valley from the end of May to October, fre- 

 quenting rice-fields and gardens. A nest taken on the 13th July 

 in the Residency grounds was placed in a thorny hedge ; it was a 

 large globular structure with a trumpet-shaped entrance at one 

 side ; it contained five white eggs, slightly set." 



Mr. Davison, writing from Mergui on the 21st June, 1875, re- 

 marks : " In a dense tangled mass of swamp-grass and screw- 

 pine I found, on the 20th June, a nest of the Chestnut-bellied 

 Munia. The nest was most ingeniously woven in with the sur- 

 rounding grass-stems so as to be entirely concealed, and I should 

 certainly not have found it had I not seen the birds (for there 

 were two of them) fly out. 



" The nest is a ball of coarse swamp-grass and rush, roughly 

 and loosely woven, measuring about 7 inches in diameter. The 

 entrance, which is at one side, measures 2-5 inches in diameter. 



" Most of the material composing the outer portion of the nest 

 is still green; the egg-cavity is lined with dry grass, which is 

 finer than that on the outside of the nest. 



" Comparing the nest with one of U. acuticauda, there are 

 many differences to be noted. It is somewhat larger than that of 

 Hodgson's Munia, more globular, composed both externally and 

 internally of coarser material, and notably it wants the projecting 

 neck of fine grass-stems which one almost invariably finds not 

 only in the nest of U. acuticauda but also in that of other species 

 of the genus. 



" The nest contained two eggs, of course pure white, but more 

 elongated and conspicuously larger than any of the eggs of 

 U. acuticauda that I took the same day. 



"This is evidently the second nest of the season, there being 

 numbers of young about which evidently have not very long left 

 the nest. 



" The species appears to be only a seasonal visitant to Mergui, 

 where it goes to breed. "When I worked in Mergui and its 

 vicinity in November, 1 met with none of this species, but in May, 

 on my return from the southernmost portion of the Province, 1 

 found the bird not uncommon about the swamps and paddy-flats 

 in small parties, usually consisting of a couple of adults and three 

 or four young." 



Finally, Mr. Gates says, writing from Pegu : " The nests and 

 eggs of this bird may be found at all times from the ]5th June to 

 the end of September. Six appears to be the maximum number of 

 eggs laid. 



" The nest is placed in dense elephant-grass, attached to two or 

 three stems at a height of four or five feet from the ground. Pre- 



