CATALOGUE. 
517 
supposed to be chiefly occupied in collecting materials ; and this 
seemed the most probable. I shot down, from a half-finished nest, 
what I supposed to be a female. Two or three nests are often 
attached to the same leaf, and twenty or thirty in the same palm. 
In the beginning of May, I obtained the newly-hatched young from 
a nest, and three quite white eggs from another, although many 
nests were but half-built. The notes near the nests were like the 
warbling and call-notes of the linnet : no song was heard. In the 
stomach, only rice-grains were found, which they were seen to pluck 
while hopping about the cottages, like sparrows with us." — (Sun- 
devall.) 
"The Baya arrives in the neighbourhood of Muttra in the hot 
weather, and begins to build during the rains. It would seem that 
they preferred those trees which, from any cause, are most inacces- 
sible. Thus, in this neighbourhood, they suspend their nests from 
the Babul {Mimosa arabica), the terrible thorns of which keep all 
intruders at a distance ; but, however, where palm-trees abound, 
they always select them, as being quite inaccessible, especially at the 
extreme tips of the leaves, where they generally suspend their nest. 
The nest is generally commenced from the top, the bird forming a 
circle like a hoop, on which they sit and swing while working ; the 
top of the hoop is gradually widened, so as at last to form a dome 
with two supports ; and thus the work goes on, till the whole dome 
has come to the length of the bottom of the hoop : there the nest 
begins to be formed into two compartments ; on one side of the hoop 
the nest itself is placed, the other side being formed into an entrance. 
They form the nest of one kind of dry grass, and during its 
formation you may observe them walking over the outside of the 
nest, prying about in every direction, and here and there tightening 
a fibre by seizing it with their beak and moving their head to and 
fro. They do not seem in any great hurry to complete the nest, but 
are very anxious to have it the proper shape, and, I suppose, suffi- 
ciently water-tight : indeed, no form could be better devised for a 
bird which builds only in the rainy season. I have observed them 
suspend the making of the nest for a month after the first few 
showers till the heavy rains begin to descend. They often take the 
liberty to hop on to a neighbour's nest and look about it, but never 
rob it of materials. Sometimes the high wind shakes down the 
nest, if not attached sufficiently strong. One bird I observed com- 
mencing its nest from the bottom, resting it on a twig having plenty 
of leaves. 
VOL. II. k 
