STOKIES ABOUT BIKDS. 237 



ings f Mr. Wilson took the pains, too, to draw 

 out one of these grass threads, and found that 

 it measured thirteen inches, and in that dis- 

 tance the bird who used it had passed it in and 

 out thirty-four times." 



'' I saw," says a writer who took a great in- 

 terest in the habits of birds, "when I was in 

 the West Indies, anothor kind of starling which 

 will cut leaves into a shape like the quarter of 

 an orange-rind, and sew the whole very neatly 

 to the under side of a banana-leaf, so as to 

 make one side of the nest. But there is an- 

 other most beautiful little bird, which is called 

 the tailor-bird, because it sews so well. It first 

 picks out a plant with large leaves, then it 

 gathers cotton from the shrub, and with the 

 help of its fine long bill and slender little feet, 

 it spins this cotton into a thread, and then, 

 using its bill for a needle, it will sew these 

 large leaves together, to hide its nest, and sew 

 them very neatly, too." 



How is it possible for a boy to rob the nest 

 of a bird after she has taken so much pains to 

 build it? Did it ever occur to you, young 

 reader, how much pain it causes the dear birds, 

 when their eggs or their young are taken away 

 from them? and then, did it never strike you 

 as very mean and ungenerous to cause all this 



