

merely sugar and water ; and I have heard one sing that had no other diet for some days ; but 

 raspberry or other fruit jam is a better kind of food on which to keep these nectar-feeding birds. 

 The members of the present genus, however, by no means confine themselves to a regimen of this 

 kind ; and I have taken so large a spider from the stomach of If. asiatica as to have wondered 

 how it could have been swallowed." 



Mr. Morgan gives us some information as to its nidification : — "It breeds all over the plains 

 of Southern India. The bird often selects a cobweb in which to build its nest ; and this is so 

 ingeniously built that it is impossible to detect the existence of the nest, unless the cobweb is 

 examined." For additional information respecting the breeding of this species, I shall extract 

 the following portion from the elaborate account given by Mr. Hume in his admirable work, 

 entitled ' Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds.' He writes, " it lays at least twice a year, as I have 

 found the eggs both in February and August ; but the breeding-season is very variable. Mr. 

 Davison saw a nest containing young birds in Captain Mitchell's verandah at Madras in 

 December. A pair had built in the same place year after year, which is their habit. 



" The nests, which are generally attached to the terminal twigs of branches, at heights from 

 10 to 3 feet from the ground, are most lovely little structures, hanging purses with the aperture 

 near the top, with a little projecting portico over the doorway. An average-sized nest will 

 measure externally from top to bottom from 5 to 6 inches in length, and about 3 in diameter. 

 Internally, from the lower edge of the entrance, it will be about 2 inches deep and about 1*5 in 

 diameter. The body of the nest is generally chiefly composed of very fine grass or vegetable 

 fibre. The egg-chamber is very softly lined with feathers or silky vegetable down, and the 

 exterior profusely ornamented with tiny dry flower-buds, scraps of white lichen, dry white leaves, 

 glistening straw, and any thing else that happens to be handy and that appears to have attracted 

 the little bird's attention in any way. The nests are always hung to some slender twig, over 

 which the upper surface of the nest is firmly worked with fibres and vegetable down. Some- 

 times long pendants of leaves, lichens, &c. hang down from the nest." 



From the capture of birds on their nests with birdlime, Captain Beavan ascertained " that 

 the males of this species take part in incubation, a fact not observed in A. asiatica." 



This species only lays two eggs, which, says Mr. Hume, " in shape, size, and colouring bear 

 the closest resemblance to those of A. asiatica. They are moderately broad oval eggs, some- 

 times, however, a good deal elongated, and usually a good deal pointed towards one end ; the 

 shell is delicate and close-grained, but almost entirely devoid of gloss : the ground-colour varies 

 much : in some it is nearly pure white ; but generally it is a dingy greenish or brownish white, 

 much freckled, clouded, and streaked with minute greyish-brown or brown markings, which 

 commonly form an irregular zone round the larger end, and sometimes form a confluent cap. In 

 some eggs the whole of the rest of the surface beyond the zone or cap is devoid or almost devoid 

 of markings. In others the whole surface of the egg is so closely speckled all over as almost 

 entirely to conceal the ground-colour, the variations in these respects reminding one much of 

 similar variations in the eggs of many species of Larks. 



"The eggs vary in length from 0-6 to 07, and in breadth from 0-43 to 0-49 inch; but the 

 average is 065 by 0-47 inch." 



Mr. Blyth (Journ. As. S. Bengal, xii. p. 976) writes: — "Very abundant in the neighbour- 



