THE TAILOR-BIRD. 



203 



SHORT-B11!L1.I> MARSH-WREN. 



retires to the South by the middle of September at farthest, probably by 

 night, as it is never seen in progress, so that its northern residence is 

 only prolonged about four months. In winter they are seen from 

 South Carolina to Texas. 



The nest of the Short-Billed Marsh-Wren is made wholly of dry, or 



partly green sedge, bent 

 usually from the top of 

 the grassy tuft in which 

 the fabric is situated. 

 W ith much ingenuity 

 and labor these simple 

 materials are loosely 

 entwined together into 

 a spherical form, with a 

 small and rather ob- 

 scure entrance left in 

 the side ; a thin lining 

 is sometimes added to 

 the whole, of the linty 

 fibres of the silk weed, 

 or some other similar 

 material. The eggs, 

 pure white, and des- 

 titute of spots, are probably from six to eight. In a nest containing 

 seven eggs, there were three of them larger than the rest, and per- 

 fectly fresh, while the four smaller were far advanced towards hatching ; 

 from this circumstance we may fairly infer that two different individ- 

 uals had laid in the same nest : a circumstance more common among 

 wild birds than is generally imagined. This is also the more 

 remarkable, as the male of this species, like many other Wrens, is 

 much employed in making nests, of which not more than one in three 

 or four are ever occupied by the females ! 



THE TAILOR-BIRD. 



This, like the last two, is a very small species, measuring scarcely 

 more than three inches in length. 



It is a native of India. 



The nest of the Tailor-bird is a very remarkable 

 production. Its exterior is constructed of two leaves ; 

 the one generally dead, which the bird fixes, at the 

 end of some branch, to the side of a living one, by 

 sewing both together with little filaments, in the 

 manner of a pouch or purse, and open at the top. 

 In this operation the bill of the bird serves as a 

 needle. Sometimes, instead ot a dead leaf and a 

 living one, two living leaves are so^ed together; 

 and, thus connected they seem rather the work of 

 human art than of an uninstructed animal. After 

 BIRD'S NESS the operation of sewing is finished, the cavity is 



