232 GROSBEAK. 



nest is placed on one side, in which the female lays her eggs, and 

 hatches the brood in perfect safety. 



We learn from Dr. Buchanan, that the nests are of two sorts, 

 one with a rounded bottom, and a transverse bar across, on which 

 the bird sits ; the other with a long neck, as abovementioned ; that 

 the male is six inches in length : the eggs are pale, almost white, 

 with a brownish tinge ; the male and female always occupy the 

 same nest in the laying season, in May and June, and build a 

 different nest to hatch in. These are found the whole year at Cal- 

 cutta, and its neighbourhood, in large societies, on the Borassus and 

 Cocos Palms, from the fibres of which they construct the nests, and 

 suspend them from the division of the leaves. In some birds the 

 front, taking in the eyes, sides beneath them, the chin, and throat, 

 are full black. 



The bird, called in the Philippine Islands Corowis, is no doubt 

 allied to this; as it forms a nest like a Satchel, attached to the 

 extreme branches of trees, or bamboos, with a cylindrical tube ; 

 the entrance at bottom. Is said to sing like a Linnet ; is easily 

 tamed, and may be taught many tricks; such as picking up money 

 from the ground, coming at a call, saluting its keeper, and the like : 

 it is likewise added, that the bird is common in several countries of 

 Asia and Africa. 



In the drawings in the collection of Lord Mountnorris are a male 

 and female, also that of a young male, in which the general colour is 

 brown ; beneath from the belly white, neck before mixed with dusky; 

 chin yellowish white ; over the eye a yellow streak, passing beyond 

 it ; on the ears a patch of the same, and a third beyond the gape ; 

 this called Buyah. The male and female called Boyah and Boye.* 

 Lord Valentia saw hundreds of the nests in his journey about eigh- 

 teen miles from Bhaughulpore, on a Tamarind tree, overhanging a 

 tank, which kept up an incessant chattering.^" 



* Is called Baya by the Hindoos ; Berbera in the Sancrit ; Bebai in the dialect of Ben- 

 gal ; Cibu in Persian ; and Tenawwit in Arabic, from its remarkable pendent nest. — See an 

 account in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. ii. 109. t Valent. Trav. i. p. 82. 



