Mr. Wait tells us that “in September I found two nests, the one deeply cup-shaped, the other domed, both constructed of similar materials.  The latter of the two was placed at the bottom of a large bunch of lemon-grass, and was constructed of root-fibre and grass, grass-bents, and down of thistle and hawkweed, all intermixed.  Exteriorly it measured between 3 and 4 inches in diameter.  The nests contained three and five eggs, all highly glossy and of a deep brownish-red, deeper than brick-red, mottled with a still deeper shade.”

Colonel “W.Y.  Legge, writing from Ceylon, tells us that “P. socialis breeds with us in the commencement of the S.W. monsoon during the months of May, June, and July.  It nests in long grass on the Patnas in the Central Province, in guinea-grass fields, and in sugarcane-brakes where these exist, as in the Galle District for instance.  I can scarcely imagine that Jerdon is correct about this Warbler’s nesting.

“Nothing can be more un-Tailor-bird-like than the nest which it builds in this country, and this led me to think that ours was a different species until my specimens were identified by Lord Walden.  In May 1870 a pair resorted to a large guinea-grass field attached to my bungalow at Colombo, for the purpose of breeding.  I soon found the nest, which was the most peculiarly constructed one I have ever seen.  It was, in fact, an almost shapeless ball of guinea-grass roots, thrown as it were between the upright stalks of the plant at about 2 feet from the ground:  I say ‘thrown,’ because it was scarcely attached to the supporting stalks at all.  It was formed entirely of the roots of the plant, which, when it is old, crop out of the ground and are easily plucked up by the bird, the bottom or more solid part being interwoven with cotton and such-like substances to impart additional strength.  The entrance was at the side in the upper half, and was tolerably neatly made; it was about an inch in diameter, the whole structure measuring about 6 inches in depth by 5 inches in breadth.  I found the nest in a partial state of completion on the 10th of May; by the 19th it was finished and the first of a clutch of three eggs laid.  The nest and eggs were both taken on the evening of the 24th, and the following day another was commenced close at hand.  This was somewhat smaller, but constructed in the same peculiar manner as the first.  This was completed, and the first of another clutch laid.  The eggs are somewhat pointed at the smaller end, and of an almost uniform dull mahogany ground-colour, showing indications of a paler underground at the point.”

Birds like these, that build half-a-dozen different kinds of nests, ought to be abolished; they lead to all kinds of mistakes and differences of opinion, and are more trouble than they are worth.

Colonel E.A.  Butler writes:—­“Found numerous nests of this species at Belgaum on the following dates:—­