THE WARBLERS. 35 
predatory in disposition to be trusted with birds smaller 
than itself. Taken altogether, there is hardly any bird 
more interesting to the fancier. 
THE WARBLERS. 
The Warblers form a very numerous family of birds 
spread all over the Old World. More than a hundred are 
found in our Empire either as residents or winter visitors 
but as they are insignificant little birds, generally smaller 
than sparrows, and of a plain olive-green or brown in 
colour, they do not attract attention, especially as they 
keep close in the treesand bushes, searching for insects 
on which they live. One of our resident Warblers is, 
however, an exception, being a very noticeable and well- 
known bird. 
THE TAILOR-BIRD (Orthotomus sutor/us), called Phutkiin 
Hindustani and Tuntuni in Bengali, is at home in every 
garden as well as in low jungles and bushy grass-land all 
over India, Ceylon, and Burma; it ranges east to Siam 
and China, but does not go more than 4,000 feet up the 
Himalayas. The figure on Plate IV (Fig. 3) will give 
a good idea of the male in his summer or breeding plum- 
age. After the breeding season his tail becomes shorn of 
its long feathers, and is then shorter than his body instead 
of longer, as the hen’s always is. Both have the same 
colour; but the plumage of the young is slightly duller, 
and the chestnut cap barely indicated in them. 
Many Warblers are good songsters, but the Tailor- 
birdis not one of these ; he has, however, an astonishingly 
loud call-note, ‘‘to-whit, to-whit,” which draws attention 
to him at once. Also although his wings are short and 
