26 
NATURE NOTES 
“les tisserins,” from the word “tisser,”to weave. In many 
parts of India they are all generally speaking called “ bayas ” 
from an old Sanscrit word, but in the Lahore district they 
are better known as the Bijira bird. In Malaya they are 
mostly called the “burong peepit ” or “ bird sparrow,” in some 
districts of that peninsula the “ burong blut ” or bird weaver, 
and their nests are called by the general term of “sarong burong.” 
Sometimes the bird has been miscalled the tampua, which is 
the Malay term for the tailor bird, a totally different species, 
and belonging to the Sylviaccx, and he is a “tailor” and not 
a “ weaver,” and makes his nest by stitching one or two leaves 
together, using his bill as a needle, and some vegetable fibres 
in the way of a thread, and so forming a warm and comfortable 
hollow in which to rear his young. 
Most of the weavers build pensile nests, varying in form, 
arrangement and position, according to the habits of the different 
species, but all construct their tenements from the stalks and 
stems of the natural grasses in these warm tracts, and which 
they select while yet green and fresh, so that they may be more 
elastic and flexible, and thus more suited for the weaving process 
which their little bills and claws have to perform. Perhaps the 
most remarkable nest of the tribe is that built by the sociable 
or republican weaver bird of South Africa, which consists of a 
vast collection of these grass nests, all similar in construction, 
and united together under one common roof, so as to appear at 
some little distance not unlike the thatch of a native hut, and 
they are generally built round a smooth-stemmed tree as a sort 
of protection from climbing animals. 
I need scarcely refer in greater detail to the nests of others 
of the genus, for a very good account may be obtained from the 
“ Royal Natural History,” recently edited by Richard Lydekker, 
and published by Warne & Co. Of well-known species we have 
the “ Phillippine weaver,” the “ Madagascar weaver,” or “ neli- 
courvi ” from the Tamil language ; the “ Abyssinian weaver ” : 
the red-billed, olive, white-headed and masked weavers ; and 
allied to them under the same family of the Ploceida are the 
“ whydahs,” or “ veuves ” of the French (literally widows) ; 
the “ munias,” to which the Java sparrow belongs; the 
“ amadavats ” ( Estrelda amandava), which are well known in 
India, where the male is called the “ lall ” or “red ” bird, and 
the female the “ muniah,” an Arabic term from which doubtless 
we get our word for one section of the group. 
The original home of the little baya I am about to describe 
was, I take it, in the Duns or Dhones of India, south of the 
Siwalik Hills, where it is still very common, and doubtless be- 
coming too numerous there it migrated, according to the law of 
dispersal under pressure of want, to other localities where it 
could find a suitable clime in which to rear its young, and at 
the same time procure the seeds of various natural grasses 
which form its staple food. Accordingly we find it passing 
