184 ARTISTS AND ARTISANS IN THE FEATHERED WORLD. 



itself of the protection offered by tlie peculiar form of the 

 usurped nest and take possession of its interior. Such, 

 however, is not the case ; the eggs of the intruder are 

 always placed on the roof. 



Only one more kind of birds which belong here may 

 be presented to complete the description of the work of 

 our dome-builders. This is the shadow bird (Scopus 

 umbretta), a relative of the storks. Its nest is of enormous 

 dimensions, most artistically composed of clay and small 

 twigs. The structure reaches sometimes the dimensions 

 of six feet in diameter, has a cupola, and is found usually 

 in the lower forks of mimosa trees. The interior contains 

 three completely separated rooms: an ante-chamber, a 

 parlor, and behind these the sleeping room, a little 

 higher than the others, so that no water can reach it. 

 All the rooms are just as nicely finished as the exterior, 

 and their entrances just big enough to allow the bird to 

 crawl through. The bed or sleeping room is the most 

 spacious ; in it both mates sit on the eggs alternately ; 

 the parlor serves also as a pantry and store-room. In 

 the ante- chamber the guard takes his post, always on the 

 lookout for danger, and ready to eject any one intruding 

 into the sacred inner chambers of their home. 



Of the tailors, the last group of bird-workers which I 

 present to you to-night, scarcely one is of any special 

 importance to us, as they nearly all live iri foreign coun- 

 tries ; yet their way of nidification is considered by 

 many as the most surprising sample of bird architecture. 

 The master of them all is the tailor-bird of Hindostan 

 (Orthotomus longicauda). This little animal, which does 

 not even reach the size of a common wren, is a most 

 skillful artist. Selecting a suitable green leaf, the 

 ingenious little architect proceeds to draw the edges 

 together by means of its bill and feet, then piercing holes 

 through the edges brought near each other, it secures 

 them in their place by means of threads of cotton, at the 



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