PLOCEUS PHILIPPINES. 645 



neck not strong enough, or some such weak point. I am strengthened in this view from having observed, as 

 above stated, how particular the male bird is at times in examining and inspecting his work ; and under these 

 circumstances it is only natural that badly-made nests would be deserted. Again, as Jerdon remarks (/. c), 

 these nests may be " simply the efforts, if built late iu the season, of that constructive faculty which appears 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." 



I have generally found the number of eggs laid by the Baya to be three or four ; they are long ovals in 

 shape, and of a pure but glossless white colour, quite unspotted. They average in size about - 9 by 065 inch. 



On entering the nest the old birds fly to the bottom of the tube, and, closing their wings, run up to the 

 egg-chamber with surprising rapidity. I have several times witnessed this performance and carefully noted it, 

 particularly as it has been said that the bird flies up the tube. Jerdon, in his admirable account of this bird's 

 nesting, writes that, " when the 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 while she works on the inside, drawing in the fibres 

 pushed through by the male, and reinserting them in their proper place, and smoothing all carefully.''. 



