p thus formed with down, wool, cotton or other soft material. The
second kind of nest is a woven one. This is a hollow ball with a hole
in the side. The weaving is not so neat as that of the baya and the
Indian wren-warbler. Moreover, several kinds of material are usually
worked into the nest, which is invariably lined.

The building of two totally different types of nest is an interesting
phenomenon, and seems to indicate that under the name _Prinia
socialis_ are classed two different species, which anatomically are so
like one another that systematists are unable to separate them. Both
kinds of nests are found in the same locality and at the same time of
the year. Against the theory that there are two species of ashy
wren-warbler is the fact that there is no difference in appearance
between the eggs found in the two kinds of nest. All eggs are
brick-red or mahogany colour, without any spots or markings.

Many of the Indian cliff-swallows, of which the nests are described in
the calendar for March, bring up a second brood in the "rains."

Needless to state that in the monsoon the tank and the _jhil_ are the
happy hunting grounds of the ornithologist.

In July and August not less than thirty species of waterfowl
nidificate. Floating nests are constructed by sarus cranes, purple
coots and the jacanas. The various species of egrets breed in colonies
in trees in some village not far from a tank; in company with them
spoonbills, cormorants, snake-birds, night-herons and other birds
often nest. The white-breasted waterhen constructs its nursery in a
thicket at the margin of some village pond. The resident ducks are
also busy with their nests. These are in branches of trees, in holes
in trees or old buildings, or on the ground.

When describing the nesting operations of waterfowl in Northern India
it is difficult to apportion these between July and August, for the
eggs of almost all such species are as likely to be found in the one
month as in the other. A few individuals begin to lay in June, the
majority commence in July, but a great many defer operations until
August. There is scarcely an aquatic species of which it can be said:
"It never lays before August." Nor are there many of which it can be
asserted: "Their eggs are never found after July."

Individuals differ in their habit. A retarded monsoon means that the
water-birds begin to nest later than usual. The first fall of the
monsoon rain seems to be the signal f