260 PLOCEIN.E. 



The nest, retort-shaped, is a marvel of skill and ingenuity ; it is 

 composed of strips torn from broad-leaved grasses, which are 

 obtained in the following manner ; the bird first notches a blade 

 of grass to the required depth, and then after making a similar 

 nip higher up, catches the grass firmly at the lower notch and 

 flies off, taking the strip with it. In Bombay, the nests are gene- 

 rally suspended from the tips of acacia trees, often overhanging a 

 river, tank, or well. 



I have never seen a nest composed of any other material than 

 grass, but Jerdon speaks of strips of plantain leaves and strips 

 torn from leaves of cocoanut and date palms being used. After 

 the eggs are laid, and the female has commenced to sit, the male 

 often continues to prolong the tubular entrance, and I have seen 

 nests, having it at least eighteen inches in length. I cannot under- 

 stand how Jerdon and Hume conclude that two is the normal 

 number of eggs, as I have examined some scores of nests and have 

 never found less than four incubated eggs, and have frequently 

 found five or six. The eggs vary both in size and shape, but are 

 typically longish ovals, pointed at one end, and are dead glossless 

 white in color ; they average about 0'82 inches in length by 0'59 

 in breadth. 



Ploceus manyar, Horsf. 



695. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 348 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 495 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 

 Vol. IX, p. 415 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 181 ; 

 Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 128. 



THE STRIATED WEAVER BIED. 



Length, 5'8 ; expanse, 9; wing, 275 ; tail, 175 ; tarsus, 075 ; 

 bill at front, 0'9. 



Bill black during the breeding season, at other times pale 

 horny-fleshy ; irides light brown ; legs fleshy. 



The male in full breeding dress has the crown of the head 

 intense yellow ; lores, cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, throat, and neck, 

 brownish-black ; back, wings, and tail, brown ; the feathers of the 

 back with a mesial dark streak, those of the primaries and tail 

 edged with yellowish ; rump streaked like the back ; upper tail- 

 coverts rufescent ; beneath from the throat whitish, tinged with 

 fulvous, and streaked on the breast and flanks with dusky-black. 



The male in winter dress is clad like the female, and has the 

 head brown, streaked like the back, a pale yellow supercilium, 

 and a small yellow spot behind the ear-coverts ; the chin and 

 throat are whitish, and the streaks on the lower surface less 

 developed. 



The Striated Weaver-Bird occurs in suitable localities through- 

 out the Presidency. It is a permanent resident, but only breeds 

 in the vicinity of large tanks or rivers, whose banks are fringed 

 with reeds or rushes, to the tops of which the nests are attached. 



