In April the green pigeons pair and build slender cradles, high up in mango trees, in which two white eggs are laid.

The songster of the house-top—­the brown rock-chat (Cercomela fusca)—­makes sweet music throughout the month for the benefit of his spouse, who is incubating four pretty pale-blue eggs in a nest built on a ledge in an outhouse or on the sill of a clerestory window.  This bird, which is thought by some to be a near relative of the sparrow of the Scriptures, is clothed in plain brown and seems to suffer from St. Vitus’ dance in the tail.  Doubtless it is often mistaken for a hen robin.  For this mistake there is no excuse, because the rock-chat lacks the brick-red patch under the tail.

April is the month in which to look for two exquisite little nests—­those of the white-eye (Zosterops palpebrosa) and the iora (Aegithina tiphia).  White-eyes are minute greenish-yellow birds with a conspicuous ring of white feathers round the eye.  They go about in flocks.  Each individual utters unceasingly a plaintive cheeping note by means of which it keeps its fellows apprised of its whereabouts.  At the breeding season, that is to say in April and May, the cock sings an exceedingly sweet, but very soft, lay of six or seven notes.  The nest is a cup, about 2-1/2 inches in diameter and 3/4 of an inch in depth.  It is usually suspended, like a hammock, from the fork of a branch; sometimes it is attached to the end of a single bough; it then looks like a ladle, the bough being the handle.  It is composed of cobweb, roots, hair and other soft materials.  Three or four tiny pale-blue eggs are laid.

The iora is a feathered exquisite, about the size of a tomtit.  The cock is arrayed in green, black and gold; his mate is gowned in green and yellow.

The iora has a great variety of calls, of these a soft and rather plaintive long-drawn-out whistle is uttered most frequently in April and May.

In shape and size the nest resembles an after-dinner coffee cup.  It is beautifully woven, and, like those of the white-eye and fantail flycatcher, covered with cobweb; this gives it a very neat appearance.  In it are laid two or three eggs of salmon hue with reddish-brown and purple-grey blotches.

Throughout April the sprightly tailor-birds are busy with their nests.  The tailor-bird (Orthotomus sutorius) is a wren with a long tail.  In the breeding season the two median caudal feathers of the cock project as bristles beyond the others.  The nest is a wonderful structure.  Having selected a suitable place, which may be a bush in a garden or a pot plant in a verandah, the hen tailor-bird proceeds to make, with her sharp bill, a series of punctures along the margins of one or more leaves.  The punctured edges are then drawn together, by means of strands of cobweb, to form a purse or pocket.  When this has been done the frail bands of cobweb, which hold the edges of the leaves in situ, are strengthened by threads of cotton.  Lastly, the purse is cosily lined with silk-cotton down or other soft material.  Into the cradle, thus formed, three or four white eggs, speckled with red, find their way.