194 



This species is of the same form as the former, from which it may be 

 distinguished by its shorter and weaker beak, and the want of the 

 rufous colouring on the rump and upper tail-coverts, as also by the 

 conspicuous striae on the neck and throat. 



2. Notes on an undkscribed species of Tailor-Bird. 

 By Dr. Nicholson. 



It may appear irregular to use what has been meant and applied 

 as a specific name, as a generic one, but then that name appears to 

 me to include, and to be indiscriminately applied to, two or three di- 

 stinct birds, as we may gather by looking at the accompanying 

 sketch, by the examination of the species described by Colonel Sykes 

 as inhabiting the Dukhun, and by reading the following description, 

 taken from Forbes, ' Oriental Memoirs,' p. 34. vol. i., under the 

 name oi Motacilla sutoria : — " The Tailor-bird resembles some of the 

 humming-birds at the Brazils in shape and colour ; the hen is clothed 

 in brown, but the plumage of the cock displays the varied tints of 

 azure-purple, green and gold, so common in those American beauties." 

 Often have I watched the progress of an industrious pair of Tailor- 

 birds, in my garden, from their first choice of a plant, until the com- 

 pletion of the nest, and the enlargement of their young. 



Now, it is evident either that Mr. Forbes alludes to a distinct and 

 an uncommon species, which I have never met with, or else he must 

 have mistaken the common Cinmjris or Sun-bird representing the 

 Humming-birds, and both sexes of which he has generally described 

 above. But then the Cinmjris builds a common-shaped nest in the 

 fork of a branch, in fashion resembling that of the humming-birds. 



This is a resident bird, not very conspicuous, as it keeps hopping 

 about among the brushwood and plants. It has a loud, short, and 

 not unmelodious song ; its general cry is ' wheet, wheet, wheet,' often 

 repeated ; but its alarm-cry is like ' cheertah, cheertah, cheertah.' 



I have found its singular sewn nest containing eggs or young at 

 all seasons of the year, m May and in November ; and this may be 

 owing to the vegetation of gardens being always kept up by means 

 of artificial irrigation ; for cultivated spots seem its favourite, if not 

 exclusive resort at least in the north of India. Though no doubt 

 it haunts suitable jungles, I never observed it there, nor ever disco- 

 vered its nest so situated ; but I have found many nests in my gar- 

 dens, both at Surat and at Raghote, as well as in Cutch. It seems 

 to prefer the leaf of the Bringal (Solanum esculentitm), or that of the 

 Cucurbita octangularis, for the purposes of nidification ; and it lays 

 four small white eggs, marked with faint dark spots at the larger 

 end. After selecting a fitting leaf, it proceeds by means of its feet 

 and beak to draw the edges together, perforating holes therein, and 

 securing their proximity by threads of cotton, with bunches at the 

 end to prevent their giving way. Then the nest is constructed inside 

 the leaf, now forming a sort of corve, with cotton ; the entrance is at 

 the top, and the nest seems small in proportion to the bird. If this 



