THE BAY A SPARROW. 
*49 
choose the branches of those trees for the suspension of their 
nests. 
Sometimes the nest is only made for incubation, sometimes 
it is intended merely as an arbour in which the male sits while 
the female incubates her eggs, and sometimes it consists of the 
nest and arbour united, producing a most curious effect. This 
‘ arbour,’ in fact, serves precisely the same purpose as the sup- 
plementary nest of the pinc-pinc and other birds which have 
already been described. 
The frontispiece represents a group of Baya Sparrows’ nests, 
taken from a photograph. The photograph was sent to the 
Zoological Society by C. Horne, Esq., who furnished the follow- 
ing valuable account of the mode of nest-building ; it appeared, 
together with a lithograph of the tree and nests, in the 4 Pro- 
ceedings of the Zoological Society, 1869.’ 
4 This morning (July 7, 1865) as I passed our solitary palm 
tree ( Phoenix dactylifera ) in the field, I heard a strange twitter- 
ing overhead, and looking up, saw such a pretty sight as I shall 
never forget. 
4 In this tree hung some thirty or forty of the elegantly 
formed nests of woven grass of the Baya bird, so well known to 
all. The heavy storms of M?y and June had torn away many, 
and damaged others so as to render them, - as one would think, 
past repair. Not so thought the birds, for a party of about sixty 
had come to set them all in order. 
4 These little birds are about the size of a sparrow, and have 
yellow in their crests, and are darker about the wings, being 
paler below, with shortish tails. The scene in the tree almost 
baffles description. Each bird and his mate thought only of 
their own nest. How they selected it I know not, and I should 
much like to have seen them arrive. I suppose the sharpest 
took the best nests, for they varied much in condition. Of 
some of the nests two-thirds remained, whilst others were nearly 
blown away. Some of the birds attempted to steal grass from 
other nests, but generally got pecked away. 
4 As the wind was blowing freshly, the nests swung about a 
good deal, and it was pretty to see a little bird fly up in a great 
