518 
CATALOGUE. 
The Baya is very tame, and will allow you to stand under tlie 
tree wliilst they are making their nests." — (Phillips's MS. Notes.) 
" The assemblages of Bayas all but invariably select a fan-leaved 
palm, wherefrom they hang their curious and beautifully-constructed 
nests, preferring the immediate vicinity of human abodes ; and it is 
rare to meet with one of the fan-leaved palms, whereon several pairs 
of the Cypselus palmarum have built their nests, also clustered with 
the pensile nests of the Baya." — (Blyth.) 
" There are few wells overhung by a tree where their nests are not 
seen pendent. They live in small communities, and are very noisy 
in their labours : they associate very readily with the common 
sparrow, at the season of the falling of the grass-seeds. Fruit of the 
Ficus indica and grass-seeds were found in the stomach." — (Colonel 
Sykes.) 
"The Weaver-bird is found all over the Peninsula, but much 
more abundantly in some situations than in others, being common 
in the more wooded districts. It associates in numerous flocks, 
generally builds in company, and almost always in the close proximity 
to water." — (Jerdon.) 
Lieutenant Tickell states that "the Baya lays from six to ten 
eggs, of a pure white colour ; shape ordinary ; and size fl- X -3^ in. 
August."* 
" In Ceylon, this is pretty generally scattered throughout the 
island, and is migratory. It breeds in June, fabricating hanging 
nests ; the male bird also having a nest for himself, which is similar 
to that used for breeding in, except that it has no gallery, and the 
chamber that contains the eggs in the one has no bottom in the 
other, so that the droppings of the bird, which always sits with its 
head towards the opening which replaces the gallery, fall through to 
the ground : here the male bird rests at night, or shelters himself by 
day from the sun and wind, while he sings to his assiduous partner 
on the eggs. 
The natives all tell me that the male bird conveys fire-flies to its 
nest, and sticks them to the side by means of mud, for the purpose 
of illuminating its dwelling. I never observed this substitute for 
candle, but I have also never found the nest of the male bird with- 
out observing a patch of mud on each side of the perch on which the 
* For further notices of the habits, &c., of the Weaver-birds, we refer the 
reader to the Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 109 ; Forbes's Oriental Memoirs ; 
and to Layard and Burgess, in the references above referred to. 
