THE BAYA SPARROW. 149 



choose the branches of those trees for the suspension of their 

 nests. 



Sometimes the nest is only made for incubation, sometimes 

 it is intended merely as an arbour in which the male sits while 

 the female incubates her eggs, and sometimes it consists of the 

 nest and arbour united, producing a most curious effect. This 

 ' arbour,' in fact, serves precisely the same purpose as the sup- 

 plementary nest of the pinc-pinc and other birds which have 

 already been described. 



The frontispiece represents a group of Baya Sparrows' nests, 

 taken from a photograph. The photograph was sent to the 

 Zoological Society by C. Home, Esq., who furnished the follow- 

 ing valuable account of the mode ofnest-buildihg; it appeared, 

 together with a lithograph of the tree and nests, in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society, 1869.' 



' This morning (July 7, 1865) as T passed our solitary palm 

 tree {PJmnix dactylifera) in the field, I heard a strange twitter- 

 ing overhead, and looking u]), saAV such a pretty sight as I shall 

 never forget. 



' In this tree hung some thirty or forty of the elegantly 

 formed nests of woven grass of the Baya bird, so well known to 

 all. The heavy storms of May and June had torn away many, 

 and damaged others so as to render them, as one would think, 

 past repair. Not so thought the birds, for a party of about sixty 

 had come to set them all m order. 



'These little birds are about the size of a sparrow, and have 

 yellow in their crests, and are darker about the wings, being 

 paler below, with shortish tails. The scene in the tree almost 

 baffles description. Each bird and his mate thought only oi 

 their own nest. How they selected it I know not, and I should 

 much like to have seen them arrive. I suppose the sharpest 

 took the best nests, for they varied much in condition. Of 

 some of the nests two-thirds remained, whilst others were nearly 

 blown away. Some of the birds attempted to steal grass from 

 other nests, but generally got pecked away. 



' As the wind was blowing freshly, the nests swung about a 

 good deal, and it was pretty to see a little bird fly up in a great 



