500 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



trunk, beginning near the bottom and widening upwards. Inside this, the real nest, 

 nearly three inches deep and two inches in diameter, was neatly constructed of wool 

 and fine vegetable fibres, the bottom being thinly lined with horse-hair. In this lay 

 three tiny, delicate, bluish-white eggs, with a few pale reddish-brown blotches at the 

 large end, and just a very few spots and specks of the same color elsewhere.' I have 

 often seen nests made between many leaves, and I have seen plenty with a dead leaf 

 stitched to a yet living one ; but in these points my experience entirely coincides with 

 that of Mr. A. Anderson, whose note I proceed to quote : ' The dry leaves that are 

 sometimes met with attached to the nest of this species, and which gave rise to the 



FIG. 245. Cisticola cisticola, fantail-warbler ; Cettia cetti, Cetti's bush-warbler ; Acrocephalus schcenobcenus, 



sedge-warbler. 



erroneous idea that the bird picks up a dead leaf, and, surprising to relate, sews it to 

 the side of a living one, are easily accounted for. I took a nest of the tailor-bird a 

 short time ago (llth July, 1871) from a Brinjal plant (Solatium esculent'iim), which 

 had all the appearance of having had dry leaves attached to it. The nest originally 

 consisted of three leaves, but two of them had been pierced (in the act of passing the 

 thread through them) to excess, and had in consequence not only decayed, but actually 

 separated from the stem of the plant. These decayed leaves Avere hanging from the 

 side of the nest by a mere thread, and could have been removed with perfect safety.' 

 The ground color of the eggs is either reddish-white or pale bluish-green. Of the 

 two types, the reddish-white is the more common, in the proportion of two to one. 



