36 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 
weak he is not atall shy or skulking in habits, so that he 
is really a conspicuous little bird as he hops about the 
bushes or on the ground with his tail cocked up perpendi- 
cularly. Heis a useful little insect destroyer, and has 
long been famed for his skillin nest-building. Fixing 
upon a big leaf, or two or three growing close together if 
one is not enough, he makes a cup or case by putting the 
edges of the leaf or leaves together, actually sewing 
them into place, by thread passed through holes bored 
by his bill. The thread is usually cocoon-silk, but the 
bird will steal cotton ends if he can get them. Exactly 
how this remarkable sewing feat is done does not appear 
tu be recorded, and the birds are so wary that though I 
have lived for some years in a compound where they 
breed, I have not even seen the nest wm situ, much 
less observed their way of working. Inside the leaf-cup 
is made a little nest of plant-down, hair, Xc., and three 
or four tiny eggs, spotted with red on a reddish-white 
or bluish-green ground, are laid in it. 
The young Tailor-birds when fledged and out of the 
nest, are very tame. | have not succeeded in rearing 
any myself, but I have seen birds of this species which 
had been nest-reared and were being kept caged ; they 
should be fed as recommended for the Shama, but are not 
worth the trouble of keeping unless to send to the London 
Zoological Gardens, which have never yet been able to 
exhibit this well-known bird. 
THE SHRIKKS. 
The Shrikes are a family of insect-eating birds, found / 
everywhere except in South America, and varying much 
