



high, and on the 8th of the same month another, quite complete, but with no eggs. It was 

 attached to the extreme tip of a bamboo, about twenty-five feet from the ground. 



"The eggs appear to be always two in number. Three eggs measured - 66, 064 and 

 0-03 inch in length by 046, 0'43, and 0-44 in breadth respectively. They have little or no gloss. 

 The ground-colour is pinkish white ; and the whole shell is thickly streaked and otherwise marked 

 with brown, in which a purplish tinge is distinctly visible. The marks are very evenly distri- 

 buted ; but round the thicker end they tend to coalesce and form a more or less distinct ring. 

 Very little of the ground-colour is visible. 



" The nest is a very lovely structure, closely resembling that of Ploceus baya in shape, with 

 the tube cut off at the level of the bottom of the nest. At a short distance off, it looks like a 

 mass of hair-combings. Three nests are composed throughout of black hair-like fibres, very 

 closely woven. With these are intermingled numerous small cocoons, pieces of bark, a few 

 twigs here and there, and large lumps of the excreta of caterpillars. The interior is sparingly 

 lined with fine grass. The fourth nest was made almost entirely of strips of grass, a very small 

 quantity only of black fibres being used. Some huge pieces of bark, nearly as large as the bird 

 itself, were suspended by cobwebs from the lower part of the nest. 



"The nest is pear-shaped, about six inches in height, and barely three inches outside 

 diameter at the thickest part. The upper two inches are solid. The entrance is about halfway 

 down, and measures T5 by 1*0 inch. The bottom of the egg-chamber is about one inch below 

 the tip of the entrance ; and the thickness of the wall everywhere is about one third of an inch. 

 The wonderful part of the nest is the verandah or portico. This springs from the upper edge of 

 the entrance, and extends to two or three inches below the bottom of the nest. Laterally it~ 

 extends to rather more than the width of the nest ; and the sides are incorporated with the main 

 structure all the way down. It is made of the same materials as the other portions, is about a 

 quarter of an inch thick, and very strongly woven and elastic." 



Mr. Oates has kindly presented me with one of these nests, taken by him in Lower Pegu 

 on the 0th of July 1876. It is suspended from a green leafy bough, and is entirely constructed 

 of fine brown and black bark-fibres, with a few shreds of bark interwoven or suspended from the 

 lower portion. It has a very 'arge and peculiar portico, which entirely surrounds the upper part 

 and sides of the entrance-hole, and so completely covers it that it is only visible directly from 

 below. The nest measures 5 - 5 inches, exclusive of the few pendent shreds of bark, and is 3 inches 

 wide, measured across the entrance: the portico projects 1 inch, and is about 2*75 long. The 

 nest is internally about 1*5 inch deep, and is solid, although thinly constructed. 



I have examined specimens collected by Mr. Wardlaw Ramsay from Tonghoo and Rangoon, 

 by Major Godwin-Austen from the Garo hills, and a good series from Moulmein, Malacca, 

 Sumatra, and Borneo, and can detect no signs of there being any local races. 



According to Mr. Wallace (Ibis, 1870, p. 49), "this species has the tongue short, triangular, 

 horny at the tip, and entire." This statement appears to me remarkable, as in every other 

 respect it agrees well with the genus Antlireptes, the gregarious habits being also exhibited in 

 some of the small African species, as, for instance, in A. liypodilus, which I have occasionally 

 seen in flocks on the Gold Coast. 



