176 PLOCEIDvE. 



darker on the breast and flanks, the feathers of which parts are 

 frequently streaked with narrow shaft-lines of brown. After the 

 spring moult the appearance of the bird is much changed : the 

 forehead, crown, and nape become bright yellow ; the back and 

 scapulars are black, each feather broadly margined with bright 

 yellow ; the sides of the head, the chin, and throat dark blackish 

 brown, and the breast bright yellow; the other parts of the 

 plumage remain unchanged. 



Fig. 45. Head of P. baya. 



Female. At all times resembles the male in winter plumage so 

 closely as to require no separate description. 



The intensity of the fulvous tinge on these birds varies much 

 according to age, and in some degree according to the time which 

 has elapsed since the moult- 

 In the male in summer the bill is dark horny brown, yellowish 

 at gape and base of lower mandible ; legs and feet flesh-colour ; 

 iris brown. The female in summer and both sexes in winter have 

 the bill yellowish horn-colour. 



Length about 6 ; tail 2 ; wing 2'9 ; tarsus -8 ; bill from gape 

 65. 



Distribution. Ceylon and the whole of India proper from the 

 extreme south to the base of the Himalayas as far east as the 85th 

 degree of longitude, about which boundary this species meets the 

 next. 



Habits, fyc. Breeds from April to September, constructing a 

 hanging flask-shaped nest of grass, strongly woven, suspended 

 from a branch of a tree generally growing over water. The nest 

 terminates in a long funnel of grass, sometimes nearly two feet in 

 length, through which the bird enters the nest proper. The eggs, 

 either two or three in number, measure about -82 by -59. 



721. Ploceus megarhynchus. The Eastern Baya. 



Ploceus atrigula, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc. p. 84 (1844, desc. 



null.) ; Skarpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, p. 491 (1890). 

 Ploceus philippinus (Linn.), Blyth, Cat. p. 115 (pt.). 

 Ploceus baya, Blyth, Horsf. $ M. Cat. ii, p. 515 (pt.) ; Jerd. B. I. ii, 



p. 343 (pt.) ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 436 (pt.) ; id. $ Uav. S. F. vi, 



p. 398 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 597 ; Hume, Cat. 



no. 694 bis ; Oates, B. B. i, p, 358. 



