COBBLER OR TAILOR? 



THE disagreement between the popular and 

 the scientific name of the tailor-bird 

 {Oi'thotomus sutorius) must, I suppose, be 

 attributed to the fact that the average 

 ornithologist is not learned in the Classics. I freely 

 admit that I did not notice the discrepancy until it was 

 pointed out to me. Orthotomus sutorius means, not the 

 tailoring, but the cobbling Orthotomus. It was, I 

 believe, Forester who, considerably over a century ago, 

 gave the bird the specific name which it now possesses, 

 or rather the allied name, sutoria. If he wrote this in 

 mistake for sartoria, the error was a stroke of genius, 

 since the bird should certainly be called the cobbler 

 rather than the tailor. The so-called sewing of the nest 

 is undoubtedly a great performance for a little bird that 

 does not possess a workbox. Nevertheless, if the dirsie 

 who squats in the verandah did not work more neatly 

 than the tailor-bird he would soon lose his place. 

 Orthotovms sutorius does not sew leaves one to 

 another, it merely cobbles them together, much as 

 the " boy " cobbles together the holes in his master's 

 socks. 



When last I wrote about the tailor-bird, I had honestly 

 to admit that I did not know how the bird did its work. 

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