OUR FEATHERED ENGINEERS. 85 



it is a mile or more from the pool. It is usually a 

 little hollow, lined with dry grass, moss, and 

 leaves, and the down from the parent's body is 

 added last of all. The Eider Duck always 

 breeds near the sea, usually making a slight nest 

 of marine herbage in a crevice of the rocks on an 

 uninhabited island, and the warm padding of down 

 is gradually added as egg after egg is laid. Some 

 Ducks breed in holes in trees, as the Golden-eye ; 

 under rocks, as the Merganser ; and in burrows, 

 as the Sheldrake ; but all upholster their nests in 

 the same singular manner. The Geese make 

 bulky nests of dead grass and leaves, heather, and 

 aquatic vegetation, lining them with moss, adding 

 the final upholstering as the eggs are being laid. 



ii. Tailors. Although we have no repre- 

 sentative of this class ot feathered engineers in 

 the British Islands, I make no apology for intro- 

 ducing them into the present chapter. One of 

 the most remarkable and curious examples of bird 

 architecture in the whole world is the nest of the 

 Indian Tailor Bird (Orthotomus longicauda). 

 This interesting little bird selects a broad leaf of 

 some tropical plant, and draws the edges together 

 into a cone, which is securely fastened with a 

 thread of vegetable fibre. This cone is then lined 

 with fine, dry grass and scraps of vegetable down. 

 But the most curious part remains yet to be told : 

 the thread of fibre which sews the leaf together is 

 absolutely knotted, just as a tailor would do his 

 thread ! The Tailor Bird is a little, brown, insig- 



