COBBLER OR TAILOR? 



f~ ""^HE disagreement between the popular and 

 the scientific name of the tailor-bird 

 (Orthotomus sutorius) must, I suppose, be 

 ^^ attributed to the fact that the average 

 ornithologist is not learned in the Classics. I freely 

 admit that I did not notice the discrepancy until it was 

 pointed out to me. Orthotomus sutorius means, not the 

 tailoring, but the cobbling Orthotomus. It was, I 

 believe, Forester who, considerably over a century ago, 

 gave the bird the specific name which it now possesses, 

 or rather the allied name, sutoria. If he wrote this in 

 mistake for sartoria, the error was a stroke of genius, 

 since the bird should certainly be called the cobbler 

 rather than the tailor. The so-called sewing of the nest 

 is undoubtedly a great performance for a little bird that 

 does not possess a workbox. Nevertheless, if the dirzie 

 who squats in the verandah did not work more neatly 

 than the tailor-bird he would soon lose his place. 

 Orthotomus sutorius does not sew leaves one to 

 another, it merely cobbles them together, much as 

 the "boy" cobbles together the holes in his master's 

 socks. 



When last I wrote about the tailor-bird, I had honestly 

 to admit that I did not know how the bird did its work. 



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