NEST OF INDIAN TAILOR BIRD WOOD 353 



minute button that effective!}'' holds the leaf and nest contents in 

 close apposition. When the riveting has been repeated, as in 75 

 places on the Sigiriya nest, it holds firmly. In this nest the Euphor- 

 bia cotton made excellent rivets for holding the leaves in position. 



The Euphorbia pod is filled with seeds attached to a small plume 

 of compressed floss. When the seed is detached there remains a 

 minute umbilicus that holds the cotton fibers together. It was fre- 

 quently this coherent plume whose seed the bird pulled — end on — 

 through the opening made in the leaf. Once through the aperture 

 it expanded and held in place the remainder of the cotton, with its 

 attachments to the nest lining. 



If we number the three leaves that formed the casing of the nest, 

 leaf I had b}^ careful count 20 holes through which a tuft of cotton 

 had been drawn, while 9 had been unused. Leaf II had 25 filled 

 and 9 unoccupied perforations; while leaf III had no less than 31 

 filled and 14 empty holes. 



Where the leaf edges touched, the perforations, both filled and un- 

 filled were placed a quarter of an inch apart. These marginal holes 

 were more numerous, as in the body of the leaf, on leaf II and leaf 

 III, the latter showing 8 filled and 5 empty perforations, while the 

 former had 5 occupied and 8 unoccupied. 



It maj be said in explanation of the manner in which the female 

 tailor fashions her nest that there are four distinct processes em- 

 ployed in binding together leaves and nest — sewing, rivetting, lacing, 

 and matting. 



The nearest approach to sewing occurred in three or four instances 

 when the out-drawn strand was not that nearest the perforation but 

 was seized beneath the farther leaf and riveted into the neighboring 

 leaf. Such an arrangement gave the appearance of stitching the 

 edge of one leaf to the margin of the other. This appearance may 

 be seen in one of the photographs. 



In one of the earliest descriptions given of the tailor bird's nest, 

 Jerdon, a most acute and careful observer, says the bird makes a 

 knot in the silk or cotton to keep it in place. Now, the most minute 

 survey of the external surface of the three leaves fails to show the 

 slightest approach to such a device, and it may be added that the 

 expanded, button-like process in the instances described seemed to an- 

 chor the nest mass as effectually as if it had been tied in a regular knot. 



The second nest of the tailor bird was made from a single leaf. 

 This was the one presented to me by Captain Phillips, of Kitulgala, 

 Ceylon, August 1, 1925. He found it, June, 1925, in the middle of 

 a croton bush, 3 feet from the ground. It is evidently an unfinished 

 nest and in early stages of construction, but shows very plainly the 

 processes commonly employed in nest building. The leaf itself is 

 81/^ inches long and 8 inches at its widest part. The interior 



