SPARROWS, WAGTAILS, AND PIPITS 201 



tective objects, and seem, so far as their foundation 

 goes, to be either natural hollows or depressions 

 in the soil that have been somewhat deepened 

 by the birds. The only structural elements in 

 them are a thin lining of dried grass, and some- 

 times a certain number of blades loosely inter- 

 woven over the entrance so as to render it even 

 less conspicuous than it otherwise would be. After 

 the first brood has been sent out into the world, 

 the old birds begin pairing afresh, and during the 

 latter half of May are constantly to be seen flirting 

 and chasing one another about from place to place, 

 showing the white colour of their lateral tail-feathers 

 very conspicuously as they do so. 



One of the most curious points about their 

 nesting operations is that so large a number of 

 young birds should survive. In all the lower part 

 of the Gangetic delta, sudden and furious storms of 

 thunder, wind, and rain are of frequent occurrence 

 during the whole period in which the first set of 

 nests are occupied; and the rainfall, although 

 usually of brief duration, is often violent enough 

 to cause temporary flooding of the low-lying tracts 

 of land in which the nests are ordinarily placed. 

 In spite of this the young birds seem usually to 

 come off scatheless, and on going to examine a nest 

 that by all apparent right should have been flooded 

 only a short time before, one generally finds all 

 its little mouse-coloured, downy inmates safe and 



