TAILOR-BIRDS. 69 



history are rigidly correct. The following extract 

 from Forbes's Oriental Memoirs contains, however, 

 the account of one who professes to have been an 

 eye-witness of the proceedings of the bird. "It 

 first selects a plant with large leaves, and then 

 gathers cotton from the shrub, spins it to a thread 

 by means of its long bill and slender feet, and 

 then, as with a needle, sews the leaves neatly 

 together to conceal its nest. Often have I 

 watched the progress of an industrious pair of 

 tailor-birds in my garden, from their first choice 

 of a plant, until the completion of the nest, and 

 the enlargement of the young." These birds are 

 natives of Hindostan. 



Leaving, however, the further illustration of 

 the employment of the beak as a needle, let us 

 advert to its use as a boring tool. Of birds which 

 make this use of their bills, the kingfishers and 

 the woodpeckers present us with the best ex- 

 amples. On some retired bank-side the pair of 

 kingfishers commence their task. Their long and 

 strong bills being set to work, they soon excavate 

 a certain depth into the bank, upon which one of 

 the birds enters it and scratches out the rubbish 

 with its feet, striking meanwhile with its bill, and 



