THE WARBLERS. 



before I was out of bed next morning the bird had 

 noticed it and was carrying off large beak-fulls. He 

 practised a certain amount of guile, but was easily 

 tracked to a low, dense bush in the garden, where, 

 with such charitable assistance, he did not take long 

 to make his wife a very cosy house. It may encour- 

 age others in doing good to know that in due course 

 a fine family was reared and sent out into the world 

 in spite of the crows. 



The Tailor Bird is green, or greenish-brown, on 

 the upper parts, with a golden tinge on the fore- 

 head. The under parts are white. When the neck 

 is stretched, a narrow dark mark appears on each side 

 of it, as if the bird had been trying to cut its throat. 

 In figure and gait it is very like the Jenny Wren at 

 home, but, instead of the apologetic stump which 

 that bird holds up behind, it has a long and elegant 

 tail, with the two centre feathers prolonged beyond the 

 rest. It is no musician, but has a remarkably loud 

 and clear voice, and is constantly saying tow/lit, 

 tow/tit, towhit, or else tow/tee, tow/tee, tow/tee. 



There is another kind of Tailor Bird, which Jerdon 

 calls the Dark Ashy Wren Warbler (Prinia socMis). 

 It is remarkable for laying red eggs. They are 

 meant to be thickly spotted with red on a white 

 ground, but often the spots are so thick that there is 

 no ground colour left. This bird is larger and has a 

 longer tail than the other, and is of a dark, ashy- 

 brown on the upper parts. The under parts are 

 buffy, or reddish-white, and the two colours, dark 

 and light, are sharply separated on the sides of the 

 neck. This is the feature by which I recognise the 

 bird most casilv. It is not nearlv so common in 



