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STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



fashion. Instead of the rough, strong workmanship of the 

 exterior, with its reed-stems interlacing among each other, as if 

 woven by human art, and its pale yellow hue, the inside exhibits 

 a lining of flat leaves, laid artistically over each other so as to 

 form a soft, smooth resting-place, but not interlacing at all, 

 being" held in their place by their own elasticity. Their colour 

 is of a pale bluish grey, and the contrast which they present to 



THE TAILOR BIRD. 



the exterior is very strongly marked. In size the nest is about 

 as large as an ordinary cocoa-nut — not quite so long, though 

 broader. 



The wonderful litde bird, whose portrait is accurately given 

 in the accompanying illustration, is popularly known by the 

 appropriate title of Tailor Bird, its scientific name being Or- 



