Notices of Books. 9387 



by the male, reinserting them in their proper place, and smoothing all 

 carefully. Considerable time is spent in completing this part of the 

 nest, the egg-chamber being formed on one side of the loop and the 

 tubular entrance on the other ; after which there appears to be an 

 interval of rest. It is at this stage of the work, from the formation of 

 the loop to the time that the egg-compartment is ready, that the lumps 

 of clay are stuck on, about which there are so many and conflicting 

 theories. The original notion, derived, I believe, entirely from the 

 natives, was that the clay was used to stick fire-flies on, to light up 

 the apartment at night. Layard suggests that the bird uses it to 

 sharpen its bill on ; Burgess, that it serves to strengthen the nest. I 

 of course quite disbelieve the fire-fly story, and doubt the other two 

 suggestions. From an observation of several nests, the times at which 

 the clay was placed in the nests, and the position occupied, I am 

 inclined to think that it is used to balance the nest correctly, and to 

 prevent its being blown about by the wind. In one nest lately 

 examined, there was about three ounces of clay in six different 

 patches. It is generally believed that the unfinished nests are built 

 by the male for its own special behoof, and that the pieces of clay are 

 more commonly found in it than in the complete nests. I did not find 

 this the case at Rangoon, where my opportunities of observing the 

 bird were good, and believe rather that the unfinished nests are either 

 rejected from some imperfect construction, weak support or other rea- 

 son, if built early in the breeding season ; or, if late, that they are 

 simply the efforts of that constructive faculty which appears, at this 

 season, to have such a powerful effect on this little bird, and which 

 causes[[some of them to go on building the long tubular entrance long 

 after the hen is seated on her eggs." — P. 344. 



But I am forgetting myself, and reverting to a volume that I had 

 laid aside, for in reality there are three volumes instead of two ; 

 although vols. ii. and iii. are paged consecutively, and thus the idea 

 of a continuous volume kept up, there are altogether three as distinct 

 volumes as ever need be handled, and all three are of goodly dimen- 

 sions : let us dive into the third, and begin with a short quotation 

 about the bronze-backed pigeon. 



" The Bronze-hacked Imperial Pigeon (Carpophaga insignis). — 

 During the hot weather, from the middle of April to the first week in 

 June, when the rains almost invariably commence on the Malabar 

 Coast, large numbers of this pigeon descend from the neighbouring 

 mountainous region of Coorg and Wynaad, to a large salt swamp in 

 the neighbourhood of Cannanore, and there not only eat the buds of 



