THE INDIAN SILVER-BILL. 207 



certainly two broods, probably more ; the great majority of nests will, 

 everywhere I think, be found from January to March, and from July 

 to September. 



Normally, in fact nine times out of ten, they place their nests in 

 the low, thick, thorny bushes, at heights of from one foot to five feet 

 from the ground ; but I have found them in the most out-of-the-way 

 places once in an old thatch, several times in a haycock in my own 

 ground, and once in amongst some dry bushes, stuck up as supports 

 for, and almost covered with sweet peas. 



Typically the nest is large and globular, loosely put together of 

 fine and coarse grass, the latter predominating on the outside, the 

 former on the inside, and with more or less vegetable down as a lining. 

 But they are sometimes only partially covered, sometimes quite open 

 above, and all kinds of odds and ends are not unfrequently pressed 

 into the service. I quote a few old notes of nests, made on the spot 

 at the time of finding them. 'Took a nest near Etawah on the 22nd 

 of January, 1867. It was composed entirely of the flower-stems of the 

 chircyan-ki-chunnc (Agrostis sp.J , mixed here and there with a few tiny 

 pieces of cotton, a small flock or two of wool, one little piece of red 

 cloth, and a few very small pieces of coarse cotton fabric. It was placed 

 in a small bush of the jherberi (Zizyphus nummulariaj , about six inches 

 from the ground. It was open, broadly saucer-like, some few of the 

 elastic grass-stems of the sides overhanging the cavity of the nest. It 

 contained four pure white eggs. 



" A nest containing eight eggs, taken on the 26th of January, 1867, 

 was a complete sphere of soft grass, with only a hole in the side. It 

 was pretty thickly lined with cotton wool, and contained one or two 

 small coloured rags. It was in a heens bush (Capparis aphyllaj, with 

 other nests, about six feet from the ground. 'January 28th. In a 

 ber tree, about ten feet from the ground, the nest loosely made of the 

 flowering stalks of delicate grasses, with a good deal of cotton, and one 

 greenish rag incorporated ; only one egg.' ' I have never taken more 

 than eight eggs in any nest, and I have never, myself, had any reason 

 to believe that more than one pair were concerned in the construction, 

 or equipment, of any nest I ever met with ; but it will be seen that 

 two pairs do sometimes combine to build and fill a single nest.' ' 



Mr. Gates then quotes Theobald's observations in support of this 

 statement ; after which he proceeds as follows : " Mr. Brooks tells me 

 he has often taken eggs at Mirzapoor, in December, and I have found 

 young birds often in the commencement of January, so that I see no 

 reason to doubt the hatching of the December eggs. 



