HONEYSUCKERS AND TAILOR-BIRDS 139 



in the construction of the nest are of strong, rough 

 texture, such as those of the common blue Petrcea 

 or of Ficus hispida ; but now and then a foolish 

 pair of birds will attempt to make use of other kinds 

 of leaves in which the texture is not capable of 

 resisting the strain of the stitches, so that the thread 

 gradually cuts its way through and leaves the blades 

 gaping. Disasters of this kind often take place 

 where the leaves of the common white Ixora have 

 been used, and half-finished and deserted nests are 

 therefore often to be met with in the shrubs. 

 During the earlier part of the nesting season, the 

 threads for the stitches and lining of the cavity of 

 the nest are usually formed of the down obtained 

 from the pods of silk-cotton-trees, and when this 

 is no longer to be obtained various other fine 

 fibrous materials take its place. Both threads and 

 lining are often derived from the fibrous webbing 

 at the bases of the petioles of the common tadi- 

 palm, Borassus flabelliformis, and this is often 

 gathered in such relatively large bundles as to be 

 very conspicuous in the beaks of the. birds as they 

 fly to their nests from the trees in which they have 

 been collecting. In most cases the nests hang 

 more or less vertically, but now and then they lie 

 almost horizontally with the opening between the 

 lower edges of the leaves, an arrangement that 

 presents obvious advantages in exposed situations as 

 affording maximal protection from violent driving 



