3i2 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



attached to the same leaf, aud twenty or thirty in the same palm. In 

 the beginning of May, I obtained the newly-hatched young from a 

 nest, and three quite white eggs from another, although many nests 

 were but half-built. The notes near the nests were like the warbling, 

 and call-notes of the Linnet : no song was heard. In the stomach, 

 only rice-grains were found, which they were seen to pluck while 

 hopping about the cottages, like Sparrows with us." 



As regards the warbling spoken of above, Colonel Sykes' remarks 

 lead one to doubt that statement, as also the behaviour of the bird 

 when it has the run of a large aviary ; he says : 



" There are few wells overhung by a tree where their nests are 

 not seen pendant. They live in small communities, and are very noisy 

 in their labours; they associate very readily with the common Sparrow, 

 at the season of the falling of the grass-seeds. Fruit of the Ficus 

 indica, and grass-seeds, were found in the stomach." 



Messrs. Horsfield and Moore quote a long and ungrainmatical 

 manuscript note by a Mr. Phillips, in which he states that in the 

 neighbourhood of Muttra, the Baya usually suspends its nest from the 

 Babul (Mimosa arabica), the terrible thorns of which keep all intruders 

 at a distance. His account of the building of the nest is by no means 

 lucid, and judging from the behaviour of my own birds, I should say 

 it was incorrect. He states that the nest is generally commenced by 

 the formation of a circle like a hoop ; but my birds only form a half 

 circle from which the nest is built backwards in the form of a dome, 

 the entrance being near the bottom : he, however, correctly describes 

 the manner in which the builder walks over the outside of the structure, 

 testing the strength of it, at all points, and tightening all loose fibres. 

 His assertion that the Baya never robs his neighbour of materials, is 

 utterly opposed to what I have observed ; for, all the time that he is 

 weaving, he seems to be on the alert to rob his own species, or the 

 industrious Red-billed Weaver, and the consequent bad language on 

 both sides is simply shocking to listen to. 



Dr. Jerdon gives the following interesting account : " The common 

 Weaver-bird is found throughout the whole of India, from Cape 

 Coinorin and Ceylon to the foot of the Himalayas, and extending into 

 Assam, Burmah, and Malayana. It is most abundant in the well 

 wooded parts of the country; and in the bare table-land of the Deccan, 

 you may travel for days without seeing one. It appears to wander 

 about in some localities, for some observers have stated that it is 

 migratory, but it is certainly a permanent resident in most parts of 

 the country ; and their roosting places on certain trees are well-known. 



