2o8 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



" Sometimes they will even share a nest with another species. 

 Colonel G. F. L. Marshall remarks of this Munia : ' I have taken 

 eggs hard-set in the first week in February, in the Allahabad district. 

 I have found them breeding in the eaves of a verandah, the nest 

 being formed of the usual materials fine grass-stems in seed, but 

 used only to line the hole in the roof. Out of one nest similarly 

 situated, but made of grass and feathers mixed, I took seven eggs of 

 this bird, and four of Passer indicus. The nest in this case was 

 probably built by the Sparrow.' 



" Major C. T. Bingham says : ' Breeds both at Allahabad and at 

 Delhi from February to September. Eggs white, from four to eight 

 in number ; nest of grass, sometimes domed, sometimes a mere pad.' 



" Mr. R. M. Adam, under date November i5th, 1867, writes from 

 Baraich : ' On the 25th of October I found a half built nest of Muiria 

 malabarica ; two days after, on visiting it again, I found it finished. 

 November 3rd, I found three eggs ; on the Qth one bird was hatched 

 and four eggs in the nest ; one was hard-set, which I left, the other 

 three I took and cleaned, and found in them just the genns of life. 

 On the loth, the egg I left was hatched. On the i2th, I found the 

 birds had deserted the nest. It was built on a saro-tree (Cupressus 

 sempervirensj in the public gardens, about five feet from the ground, 

 and was composed of several kinds of green and dried grasses, some 

 of the heads of which were downy, and these with some soft feathers 

 formed the lining of the nest. The grasses were matted without 

 much skill into a shape like a Florence flask without neck, and 

 supported by the branches and twigs of the tree. There was only 

 one opening, which measured two inches in diameter. 



" ' The size of the nest varies greatly, I have seen some fully two 

 feet in circumference.' ' 



Mr. F. R. Blewitt gives the following account of a nest of this 

 species that he found in the Delhi district : " As my man ascended a 

 tree to fetch the eggs from an Eagle's nest (Aquila fulveseensj , I saw 

 a pair of the small Munia malabarica hopping about from, branch to 

 branch, near to the nest, in great anxiety, chirping loudly all the 

 while. Taking the binoculars to watch the birds and their, as it 

 appeared to me, strange movements more closely, I saw one of them 

 suddenly enter and disappear in a small hole in the under part of the 

 large nest, the other immediately followed the first, then both came 

 forth and commenced hovering about the man, who had by this time 

 reached the nest. Not knowing what the hole could be there for, I 

 directed the man to inspect it, when to my astonishment, it turned 



