942 SVRINX—TAILOR-BIRD 
number of rings, semirings, muscles and membranes that enter into 
the composition of the Syrinx. The essential requirement of a vocal 
organ, the presence of vibratory membranes, can be met in many 
ways; but how these membranes act in particular, and how their 
tension is modified by the often numerous muscles we do not know. 
Various dilatations of the Trachea no doubt assist the modulation 
of the voice, and the same may be said of the upper Larynx ; but 
the TONGUE plays no part in the voice of Birds, with the possible 
exception of Parrots, and the slitting of that member or the cutting 
of its frenum cannot possibly add to the faculty of articulation. 
T 
TAILOR-BIRD, the Motacilla sutoria of Pennant, who in 1769 
(Indian Orn. p. 7, pl. viii.) described and figured its wonderful 
nest,! built in a cone which is formed by the sewing together of the 
leaves of plants, as may be seen in almost every museum, and read 
of in many books. A good summary of what has been written on 
the subject is given by Mr. Oates (Hume’s Nests & Eggs, Ind. B. 
ed. 2, i. pp. 231-235); but though the progress of building has 
been watched and recorded almost day by 
day, few seem to have observed the birds 
at work upon their fabric, and no one has 
explained how they make the threads (when 
they do make them) with which they sew, 
or the bunches at the ends acting as knots 
Se renal to hinder the threads from being drawn 
tan Se out. The briefest account must here suffice. 
Of the common Indian Tailor-bird, Orthotomus sutorius or Sutoria 
longicauda, Jerdon (b. Ind. ii. p. 166) writes that it “makes its nest 
of cotton, wool and various other soft materials,’ and “draws 
together one leaf or more, generally two leaves, on each side of the 
nest, and stitches them together with cotton, either woven by itself, 
1 He was wrongly informed as to what the bird was like, for he says it was 
“light yellow,” whereas it has a chestnut crown, the back of a bright olive-green, 
and is white beneath. The cock has the two middle tail-feathers elongated ; but 
in the hen they do not surpass the rest. J. R. Forster, a dozen years later, 
breught out a German version of Pennant’s work (the original edition of which 
was never completed), and therein referred (p. 17) to an earlier description of the 
bird and its nest by Walter Schouten (Voy. Jnd. Orient. ii. p. 513, pl. xv.) under 
the name of ‘* Tati ow Oiseau-mouche.” 
2 The figure was drawn from a specimen in the Paris Museum ; but Dr. Sharpe 
(ut supra, p. 219, note) says he has ‘‘not succeeded in identifying” the species to 
which it belonged. 
