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Genus AmADINA, Swain. 
Subgenus SPERMESTES. 
SrermesteEs Cueet, Sykes. 
This is a very common little bird, living in flocks, to be found in 
hedges and low bushes, and is, I believe, partial to those of the leaf- 
less Caper. It breeds, I conclude, twice in the year, as I have found 
its nest in the months of November and March. The nest in two 
instances was formed of the flower-stems of the silk-grass, which is 
abundant in the beds of streams; it was lined with feathers and the silky 
seeds of the grass; its shapewas that of a hollow ball. The largest num- 
ber of eggs I have found was six, but I see that Col. Sykes found as 
many as ten. The eggs are very small and of a pure white colour, 
rather more than ;&ths of an inch long by ,5,ths of an inch wide. 
These little birds are often to be seen on the ground picking up 
grass-seeds, and so close together that several may be killed at a shot : 
they do not take long flights, but merely from bush to bush. I saw 
numbers of them in the leafless Caper on the banks of the river 
Bheema. 
Subfamily FRInGILLInNz. 
Genus Pyrerra, Swain. 
PyrGiTa DOMESTICA. HovusE-SPARROW. 
Common enough in India. It breeds during the monsoon. I saw 
them building in the month of August, and its habits, mode of 
building its nest, &c., are similar to those of the Sparrow at home. 
PYRGITA FLAVICOLLIS, Frankl. YELLOW-NECKED SPARROW. 
Of the time of breeding or nesting habits I know nothing, but 
Dr. Jerdon in his Catalogue says, “It is said to breed in holes of 
trees. The egg is of a greenish-white, much streaked and blotched 
with purple-brown : I obtained one from the body of a female.” 
Genus EMBERIZA. 
EMBERIZA MELANOCEPHALA, Jerdon. 
This handsome Bunting is very common in the Deccan when the 
grain crops are becoming ripe. The Patel or headman of the town 
of Jintee, near the river Bheema in the Deccan, assured me that these 
birds, or some of them, remain to breed in the thick babool copses 
that clothe the banks of the river near that town, but I did not ob- 
tain the nests or eggs. I believe that the greater part migrate much 
about the same time as the Rose-coloured Pastor. 
