Io6 TkE WARBLERS. 



or bush, with large, soft leaves, and drawing two of 

 them together, proceeds to stitch them to one another 

 round their edges. At that season the silk-cotton tree 

 is bursting its pods and scattering its white clusters, 

 so the tiny tailor has seldom any difficulty in finding 

 cotton, which it spins into thread with its deft little 

 feet and beak. But if it can get ready-made thread, 

 so much the better. Jerdon tells of one which 

 regularly watched the dirzie in the verandah, and 

 as soon as he had left his seat for the day, pounc- 

 ed down upon his carpet and carried off his ends 

 of thread in triumph. The bird's needle is its sharp 

 beak. Piercing a hole in the leaf, it passes the 

 thread through and knots it at the other side, and 

 so on till it has joined the two leaves by their edges 

 all round and made a neat pocket, or purse, with its 

 mouth at the top, or a little to one side. Then a soft 

 padding of cotton inside makes it ready to receive its 

 treasure of three or four pretty little eggs. They 

 vary a good deal in colour, but are generally white, 

 thinly spotted with light-red. I have often seen a 

 nest made of a single large leaf, and, on the other 

 hand, where broad-leaved plants are scarce, the bird 

 will use more than two ; but the fewer leaves the less 

 tailoring, as the bird knows. 



Last monsoon I was standing in the verandah of a 

 friend's house in Bombay when I saw an eager Tailor 

 Bird tugging desperately at a coir mat. 1 felt sure 

 that it must be in straits for something to make its 

 nest of, and knowing that my friend had a kind heart 

 for the deserving poor, I brought the case to his 

 notice the same evening. He promptly stuck a 

 bunch of clean cotton wool in the trellis, and almost 



