Prinia socialis, Sykes, Proc. Comm. Sci. and Corr. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. 89. 

 „ Blyth, Journ. of the Asiat. Soc. Beng. p. 376, 1844. 



This bird, like the Prinia inornata and the Orthotomus Bennettii, is remarkable for the inge- 

 nious manner in which it constructs its nest, by sewing together the edges of a broad leaf or 

 leaves, forming a wide-mouthed bag, and depositing therein cotton, wool, and silky grass, in the 

 midst of which several longish minute red eggs, from four to five-tenths of an inch long, are placed. 

 Col. Sykes has in his possession two of these nests ; in which the filaments of cotton or thread, 

 used in sewing, appear to be knotted at one end. 



The plant is that of a species of Plumbago, called " Cheehtah" by the Mahrattas of the 

 Dekhan, copied from one of Col. Sykes' drawings. 



Habitat, Dekhan. 



The colour of the head and back is intense grey; the wing-feathers, reddish brown; the 

 tail of the same colour, each feather having a dark brown band near the apex ; the whole under 

 surface of the bird is white, with a rufous tinge, darker on the sides. Bill, black ; tongue, long, 

 slender, bifed at the end, and fringed black; legs, yellow; irides, pale-orange. The intestinal 

 canal four and a half inches, the colon three to four-tenths of an inch long; the caeca barely 

 discoverable, being diaphanous specks ; the stomach small and globular ; the testes and ova well 

 developed ; the digastric muscle weak, only one-tenth of an inch in thickness, indicating that the 

 food of the bird is chiefly of a soft nature. Ants, flies, bugs, wasps, and minute brown beetles 

 were found in the stomach of several birds. 



Sexes alike in size and plumage. The note of the bird resembles the words " Tooee," 

 " Tooee ;" and its flight is struggling, as if it experienced difficulty in making its way. It con- 

 structs its nest fearlessly close to a dwelling, in case the leaves of the plants about suit its purpose. 



