138 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



come to point obliquely forwards over their backs, 

 look more like demented wrens than anything else. 



They are very familiar and confident, and during 

 their hunts after insects have no hesitation in 

 coming into verandahs in order to work systematic- 

 ally over any pot-plants that may be situated 

 there. It is amusing to note the energy with 

 which they will scold at dogs who may intrude 

 upon their hunting-grounds or approach their nests, 

 and who seem hardly to know what to make of 

 such audacious and noisy little antagonists. Whilst 

 engaged in hunting over a shrub they run quickly 

 along the twigs, shouting noisily all the while, and 

 every now and then snatching at insects ; and, even 

 when flying, they continue to call aloud with a 

 reckless expenditure of breath. Like the honey- 

 suckers, they bathe among wet foliage, and seem 

 to find the broad palmate leaves of Livistonias and 

 other fan-palms particularly convenient bath-rooms, 

 owing to their rigid surfaces and to the accumula- 

 tions of water that gather in their furrows and around 

 the projecting ends of the petioles. 



Tailor-birds' nests are to be found in almost 

 every garden during the latter part of the hot 

 weather and the beginning of the rainy season. 

 They are usually set quite low down among the 

 leaves of shrubs, and, where the latter are of small 

 size, sometimes within a foot or eighteen inches 

 from the ground. In most cases the leaves used 



