48 



to safety, by affixing it to the leaf itself. It picks 

 up a dead leaf, and, surprising to relate, sews 

 it to the side of a living one, its slender bill 

 being its needle, and its thread some fine fibres ; 

 the lining, feathers, gossamer, and down. 



Mr. Pennant has given a picture of this extra- 

 ordinary piece of architecture : the live leaf, 

 which serves for its basis, being that of the 

 Mango-tree, with the nest affixed to it, and 

 the birds projecting their little heads above the 

 entrance of their pendant habitations. He in- 

 forms us also, that one of these curious nests is 

 preserved in the British Museum. The colour 

 of these ingenious flying tailors, is a light 

 yellow : its eggs are white ; its length is three 

 inches; its weight only three sixteenths of an 

 ounce; so that the materials of the nest, and 

 its own size, are not likely to draw down a ha- 

 bitation that depends on so slight a tenure. 



TRAVELLING OATS. 



If the bearded Oat be left with other grain in 

 a barn, it extricates itself from the glume, nor 

 does it stop its progress till it gets to the walls 

 of the building. " Hence/' says Linnaeus, 



