36 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



weak he is not at all shy or skulking in habits, so that he 

 is really a conspicuous little bird as he hops about the 

 bushes or on the ground with his tail cocked up perpendi- 

 cularly. He is a useful little insect destroyer, and has 

 long been famed for his skill in nest-building. Fixing 

 upon a big leaf, or two or three growing close together if 

 one is not enough, he makes a cup or case by putting the 

 edges of the leaf or leaves together, actually sewing 

 them into place, by thread passed through holes bored 

 by his bill. The thread is usually cocoon-silk, but the 

 bird will steal cotton ends if he can get them. Exactly 

 how this remarkable sewing feat is done does not appear 

 to be recorded, and the birds are so wary that though I 

 have lived for some years in a compound where they 

 breed, I have not even seen the nest in situ, much 

 less observed their way of working. Inside the leaf-cup 

 is made a little nest of plant-down, hair, &c., and three 

 or four tiny eggs, spotted with red on a reddish-white 

 or bluish-green ground, are laid in it. 



The young Tailor- birds when fledged and out of the 

 nest, are very tame. I have not succeeded in rearing 

 any myself, but I have seen birds of this species which 

 had been nest-reared and were being kept caged ; they 

 should be fed as recommended for the Shama, but are not 

 worth the trouble of keeping unless to send to the London 

 Zoological Gardens, which have never yet been able to 

 exhibit this well-known bird. 



THE SHRIKES. 



The Shrikes are a family of insect-eating birds, found 

 everywhere except in South America, and varying much 



