mohwa tree and almost entirely hidden by the surrounding
leaves. The exterior diameter of the nest is 21/2 inches, and the depth
2 inches. The egg-cavity measures scarcely more than 11/2 inch across
and very nearly as much in depth. It is composed of very fine
grass-stems and is thinly coated exteriorly with cobwebs, by which
also it is firmly secured to the suspending twigs, and externally
numerous small cocoons and sundry pieces of vegetable down are
plastered on to the nest. Another nest, hung between two slender twigs
of a mango tree, is a shallow cup some 21/2 inches in diameter, and not
above an inch in depth externally. The egg-cavity measures at most 11/2
inch across by three-fourths of an inch in depth. The nest is composed
of fine tow-like vegetable fibres and thread, by which it is attached
to the twigs, a little grass-down being blended in the mass, and
the cavity being very sparsely lined with very fine grass-stems. In
another nest, somewhat larger than, the last described, the nest is
made of moss slightly tacked together with cobwebs and lined with
fine grass-fibres. Another nest, a very regular shallow cup, with an
egg-cavity 2 inches in diameter and an inch in depth, is composed
almost entirely of the soft silky down of the _Calatropis gigantea_,
rather thickly lined with very fine hair-like grass, and very
thinly-coated exteriorly with a little of this same grass, moss, and
thread. Another, with a similar-sized cavity, but nearly three-fourths
of an inch thick everywhere, is externally a mass of moss, moss-roots,
and very fine lichen, and is lined entirely with very soft and
brilliantly white satin-like vegetable down. Another, with about the
same-sized cavity, but the walls of which are scarcely one-fourth of
an inch in thickness, is composed _entirely_ of this satiny down,
thinly coated exteriorly and interiorly with excessively fine
moss-roots (roots so fine that most of them are much thinner than
human hair); a few black horsehairs, which look coarse and thick
beside the other materials of the nest, are twisted round and round in
the interior of the egg-cavity. Other nests might be made entirely of
tow, so far as their appearance goes; and in fact with a very
large series before me, no two seem, to be constructed of the same
materials.

I have nests before me now, taken in September, March, June, and
August, all of which when found contained eggs.

Two is certainly the normal number of the eggs;