“A nest found by me on the 22nd April, and containing four eggs, was built most ingeniously in a creeper that hung from a small tree.  The birds had arranged it so that the long down-bearing tendril of the creeper blended with the nest, which in the main was composed of the material surrounding it.

“Another nest found on the 26th contained three young ones.  It was built in a low branch of a large mango-tree, and might have been 12 feet from the ground.  It was a neat compact structure, deeply hollow, and made up of cobwebs, fine straw, and hair, and lined with vegetable down, closely and neatly interwoven.

“The parent birds were evidently feeding the young on the ripe fruit of the Khoda or Chumroor (Ehretia laevis).  I got one fruit from the old birds, being anxious to know what the young ones were getting for their dinner.

“The pairing-season commences about the end of March, when the males may be heard uttering a feeble kind of rambling song, which in reality is merely modified repetitions of a single note.”

Mr. A. Anderson remarked that “the White-eye breeds throughout the North-Western Provinces and Oudh during the months of June, July, and August.  The nest is a beautiful little model of the Oriole’s; and according to my experience it is invariably suspended, and not fixed in the fork of small branches as stated by Jerdon.  I have on several occasions watched a pair in the act of building their nest.  They set to work with cobwebs, and having first tied together two or three leafy twigs to which they intend to attach their nest, they then use fine fibre of the sun (Crotalaria juncea), with which material they complete the outer fabric of their very beautiful and compact nest.  As the work progresses more cobwebs and fibre of a silky kind are applied externally, and at times the nest, when tossed about by the wind (sometimes at a considerable elevation), would be mistaken by a casual observer for an accidental collection of cobwebs.  The inside of the nest is well felted with the down of the madar plant, and then it is finally lined with fine hair and grass-stems of the softest kind.  Sometimes the nest is suspended from only two twigs, exactly after the fashion of the Mango-birds (Oriolus kundoo); and in this case it is attached by means of silk-like fibres and fine fibre of sun for about 11/2 inch on each side; at others it is suspended from several twigs; and occasionally I have seen the leaves fixed on to the sides of the nest, thus making it extremely difficult of detection.

“In shape the nest is a perfect hollow hemisphere; one now before me measures (inside) 1.5 in diameter.  The wall is about 0.3 in thickness.

“Almost all my nests have been built on the neem tree, the long slender petioles of which are admirably adapted for its suspension.

“As a rule the nest is built at a considerable height, and owing to its situation there is not a more difficult nest to take.  Great numbers get washed down in a half-finished state in a heavy fall of rain.