MONOGRAPH OF PLOCEUS BAY A 
2 7 
in a southerly direction through Central India, and as far as 
Ceylon, and again through Assam and Burmah to the Eastern 
Archipelago. 
I have often seen this identical baya in the Malayan Penin 
sula, where I resided for many years, and I now write of it of 
course from memory ; but through the kindness of friends in 
India and Malaya, I have recently received full-sized specimens 
of both male and female bird, together with various nests from 
both places, and a sample of the eggs. 
The dimensions of these birds are as follows : — 
Male Bird. 
Length ... 
Wing ... 
Bill ‘ ... 
Tail 
Tarsus or leg 
5^ inches 
2 ! ” 
H .. 
i* .. 
Female Bird. 
Length ... 
Wing ... 
Bill 
Tail 
Tarsus or leg 
5 inches. 
» 
2 
4 >• 
2 
li „ 
The bills are conical, and of equal size, strong and slightly 
hollowed at the tip ; the toes, including the claws, are of the same 
form and length in either case. There are twelve feathers in 
each tail, and both have ten primary quills in the wings. 
I must now proceed to describe these birds. The male in 
plumage has the crown of a brilliant golden yellow ; nape, back 
and scapulars of a darkish brown colour, the latter being tipped 
with a dull white; rump, iron brown, the quills of a darker brown 
still, but paler on the inner webs ; the tail is of a medium 
brown colour, and the lower and under parts of the bird are 
silky in texture, and the feathers of a dull white with slight 
dashes of red and some little yellow near the vent ; the breast 
feathers yellow, but not so brilliant as on the crown. In the 
female the colours are, as is frequently the case with birds, of 
more sober tints, the crown being of a dull yellowish brown, 
w’ith dashes of black in the centre of each feather ; the nape, 
back and scapulars as in the male, and so are the quills, coverts 
and tail. The under and lower parts are of a purer white than 
in the male bird, and with no dashes of red or yellow near the 
vent feathers. The breast is of a dull yellowish brown running 
into a dull white beneath the lower mandible. The colour of 
the bill is somewhat lighter than in the male, but this may 
perhaps be due to change in a stuffed specimen. The colour 
of the female on the head and back is really not unlike that 
of our common house sparrow, a sort of dusky brown colour, 
though with a yellowish tinge. I have no doubt that this like- 
ness to the sparrow ( Passer domesticus) has been the reason why 
Europeans in the Straits of Malacca have for a long time called 
the baya the bottle-nested sparrow. 
In flight also these birds somewhat resemble the sparrow, 
but though they not unfrequently build near the houses of men, 
they are not to be seen on the ground as in the case of their 
more impudent fellow coni-rostrals, but fly direct from their 
nests to patches of grass in the immediate neighbourhood, where 
