The BAYA (_Nelicurvius Baya_), the most celebrated of the race, is of
a dark brown upon the upper portion of its body, and all the feathers,
particularly those of the wing and tail covers, are bordered with
yellowish white; the breast is marked with light brown, the shafts of the
feathers being of a deeper shade. The face and front of the throat are
black, the top of the head bright yellow, and the primary quills edged
with a narrow yellow line. The female is without the black and yellow
upon the head, the eyebrows are pale, the breast and chin of a whitish
shade. The winter coat of the adult male is like that of the female;
in the young male the breast is pale red. The beak is horn colour, the
iris brown, the feet flesh coloured, the eye dark blue. The length of
this bird is six inches, and its breadth nine and a half inches; the
wing measures two inches and four-fifths, and the tail two inches. This
species is found extensively throughout India, Assam, Burmah, and the
Malayan peninsula, frequenting woodlands in large numbers; it is much
more rarely met with in the highlands of the Deccan. Corn, rice, and
various kinds of grass-seeds constitute its principal food, but we have
never been able to ascertain from our own observation that it will eat
fruit. The Bayas breed during the rainy season, which occurs between
April and September, according to the locality, and associate freely
with other species. Their very curious nests, which in shape resemble a
retort, are models of neat and compact architecture: these structures are
generally hung from the branches of palms, or other trees, and in India
we have never seen them elsewhere; in Burmah, on the contrary, it is not
uncommon to find them suspended from the eaves of houses, or from the
huts of the natives, some twenty or thirty in a row. On one occasion we
observed not fewer than a hundred of these strange appendages hanging
to the roof of one house, and the little occupants living on excellent
terms with their human neighbours; it is, therefore, very remarkable
that this same species in some places should occupy the most quiet and
isolated situations, only visiting such districts as are but little
frequented by man. The walls of the Baya's nest are composed of blades
of grass, gathered while still green, or of strips of leaves, frequently
those of the palm-tree, woven carefully together, the shape of the little
edifice varying according to circumstances or the taste of its owner. As
soon as the chamber allotted to the eggs is fully completed, the bird
proceeds to build a partition wall, thus forming a second apartment,
supposed by some naturalists to be the especial property of the male,
whilst others imagine that it is only intended to separate the entrance
passage from the cradle of the nestlings. The entrance is tubular, and
is very strongly and firmly constructed, being destined to serve as the
favourite sitting-room of the whole family, when the young birds have
acquired sufficient strength. No sooner is the second chamber of which we
have spoken completed than the female, who has hitherto worked with her
mate, retires into the part designed for her eggs, and occupies herself
in weaving together the fine grass with which the interior is lined, the
materials for the work being brought to her by the male bird, who alone
continues the building of the passage and exterior portions of the nest.
When this part of the work is concluded, the little artisan proceeds
to carry in the lumps of clay, about the use of which so many opinions
have been expressed. The natives assert that to these pieces of clay the
male affixes fire-flies, to illumine the interior of the nest. Layard
imagines them to be employed by the little builder as a whetstone whereon
to whet its beak, whilst we ourselves are of opinion that they serve
merely as a means of weighting the structure as it hangs suspended in
the air, and have many times remarked that an unfinished nest contained
more clay-balls than one that was completed. Very various accounts are
given as to the number of eggs that form a brood; we have never found
more than three, and feel sure that in cases where six or seven have
been discovered two females must have occupied the nest. Young Bayas are
frequently tamed, and form a most interesting and attractive addition to
an aviary.
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The CRIMSON-BEAKED WEAVER BIRDS constitute a separate group,
distinguished by the unusual height and depth of their beak, which is
nearly equal to two-thirds of its entire length; in shape it is slightly
arched, and compressed towards its edges. The wings reach to the middle
of the tail, which is short, but slightly graduated and rounded at its
extremity; the plumage is brownish, spotted on the lower portion of the
body when the bird is young, becoming at a later period of a yellowish or
reddish shade.