346 BIRDS OF INDTA. 



one side. If then taken from the tree, and reversed, the nest has 

 the appearance of a basket with its handle, but less so in this than 

 in the next two species, which have seldom any length of support 

 above. Various authors have described this loop or bar as peculiar 

 to the male nest, or sitting nest, whereas it exists primarily in all, 

 and is simply the point of separation between the real nest and 

 the tubular entrance, and, being used as a perch both by the old 

 birds and the young (when grown sufficiently), requires to be very 

 stronsr. Up to this time both sexes have worked together indis- 

 criminately ; but when this loop is completed, the female takes up 

 her seat on it, leaving the cock bird to fetch more fibre and work 

 from the outside of the nest, whilst she works on the inside, drawing 

 in the fibres pushed through by the male, re-inserting 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 at 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 ori- 

 ginal notion, derived entirely, I believe, from the natives,* was 

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

 ment 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 sugges- 

 tions. 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 sis different 

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

 by the male for his 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 



* See the interesting and almost unique Natural History by a native, Akbar 

 AH Khan of Delhi, of the Maya, in the Asiatic Researches, vol. 2. 



