THE TAILOR BIRD. 231 



process of time he might comprehend that, by means of the nee- 

 dle and thread, a number of small leaves or skins might be made 

 to serve the same purpose as a single large one, and as his instru- 

 ments improved, so would his work. There are, it is true, certain 

 nations who have been acquainted with the art of sewing from 

 time immemorial, and never seem to have made the least progress 

 in it. The native Australian, for example, displays wonderful in- 

 genuity in making thread from the sinews of the kangaroo's tail, 

 and needles from the emu's bones ; tyit there his invention seems 

 to have stopped, and, up to the present time, the junction of a 

 couple of kangaroo skins, or the sewing together of a few " opos- 

 sum" furs, seem to be the limits of his powers. Still, in other 

 countries, the needle and thread have, as a rule, exhibited a reg- 

 ular improvement, until they have culminated in the sewing-ma- 

 chine of the present day. Had, however, some good genius ena- 

 bled the original founder of the art to foresee its effect upon the 

 ' world, he might well have been proud of his discovery, the earli- 

 est of human arts. 



The respectable guild of tailors, indeed, were wont to attribute 

 to their mystery an antiquity surpassing that of any other handi- 

 craft, and, on the strength of a certain passage in Genesis, claimed 

 Adam as the first tailor. As to the smiths and musicians, the 

 tailors looked down upon them as of comparatively recent origin, 

 and considered even the mysterious order of Free-masons as mod- 

 ern upstarts. Had they been moderately skilled in ornithology, 

 they might have claimed a still older origin, on the grounds that, 

 long before man came on the earth, the needle and the thread 

 were used for sewing two objects together. 



The wonderful little bird, whose portrait is accurately given in 

 the accompanying illustration, is popularly known by the appro- 

 priate title of Tailor Bird, its scientific name being Orilwtomus 

 hngicaudus. The manner in which it constructs its pensile nest 

 is very singular. Choosing a convenient leaf, generally one which 

 hangs from the end of a slender twig, it pierces a row of holes 

 along .each edge, using its beak in the same manner that a shoe- 

 maker uses his awl, the two instruments being very similar to each 

 other in shape, though not in material. These holes are not at all 

 regular, and in some cases there are so many of them that the bird 

 seems to have found some special gratification in making them, 

 just as a boy who has a new knife makes havoc on every piece 

 of wood which he can obtain. 



