"So slight and so fragile is the little oval cup that it is astonishing the mere weight of the parent bird does not bring it to the ground, and yet within it three young ones will often safely outride a gale that will bring the weightier nests of Jays and Thrushes to the ground.
"Of seven nests now before me four are composed externally of little bits of green moss, cotton, and seed-down, and the silk of the wild mulberry-moth torn from the cocoons, with which last material, however, the others appear to be bound together within. The lining of two is of the long hairs of the yak's tail, two of which died on the estate where these nests were found, and a third is lined with black human hair. The other three are formed of somewhat different materials, two being externally composed of fine grass-stalks, seed-down, and shreds of bark so fine as to resemble tow; one is lined with seed-down and black fibrous lichens resembling hair, a second is lined with fine grass, and a third with a thick coating of pure white silky seed-down. In all the seven, the materials of the two sides are wound round the twigs, between which they are suspended like a cradle, and the shape is an ovate cup, about the size of half a hen's egg split longitudinally. The diameter and depth are respectively 2 inches and 1½ inch by three-fourths of an inch. The eggs are usually three in number."
Mr. Brooks, writing from Almorah, says:—"This morning, 28th April, I found a nest of Zosterops palpebrosa containing two fresh eggs. Yesterday I found one of the same bird containing three half-fledged young ones. Near the Tonse River, in the Allahabad District, I found these birds in July nesting high in a mango-tree, the nest suspended like an Oriole's to several leaves; now I find it in low bushes, at heights of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground. The eggs, as before, skim-milk blue, without markings of any kind."
From Gurhwal Mr. R. Thompson says:—"A small cup-shaped elegant nest is built by this bird suspended by fastenings from the fork of a low branch. The nest is about 2½ inches in diameter and three-fourths of an inch in depth, composed of cobwebs, fine roots, hairs, &c., neatly interwoven and lined internally with vegetable down. The eggs, two, three, or four in number, are of a pale whitish-blue, oval, and somewhat larger than those of Arachnechthra asiatica. The birds select all kinds of trees, but the nest is always suspended. The breeding-season is about March and April, and the brood is quickly hatched and fledged.
"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 1½ 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.