ORTHOTOMUS SUTOEIUS. 519 



country an umbrageous tree with large leaves, more especially its favourite habitation the " Lettuce "-tree, is 

 usually chosen in which to construct its ingenious nest, while in the Central Province it frequently builds in 

 a coffee-bush, sewing four or five leaves together. Layard speaks of one being constructed of a dozen oleander- 

 leaves ; but the usual number of which it makes use is two. I have found beautiful nests constructed in a 

 single leaf, the edges of the lower half being brought close together, sewn firmly, and the nest built into the 

 cone thus formed, the back of the leaf serving for one half of the egg-cavity ; but these are rare exceptions. 

 Two, or perhaps three, adjacent leaves, about 4 or 5 feet from the ground, are selected and their ends brought 

 together and so formed as to make a cavity for the nest, which is built inside it and consists of fine grass, 

 bits of cotton, thread, coir-fibre, wool, small roots, and such like, some of which ingredients are passed through 

 the holes perforated in the leaf casing and then incorporated with the body of the structure, the whole 

 forming a veiy solid and substantial piece of workmanship. The coir used is mostly pulled from the mats in 

 the verandahs of houses near which the nest is often built. The egg-cavity formed in this skilful manner is 

 about 2 inches in diameter by the same in depth, the lining being simply the finer materials of the body of 

 the nest. The eggs are generally three, sometimes four, in number, of a whitish or greenish-white ground- 

 colour, spotted openly throughout, but chiefly at the large end, with one or two shades of rather light brown 

 and brownish red. In shape they are rather pointed ovals, with but little gloss, and measure about 0'6o inch 

 in length by - 45 iuch in breadth. Naturalists in India appear to differ in opinion as to the Tailor-bird using 

 dead leaves for the formation of its nest. I have found and examined many and I have never seen such a 

 thing. The most likely solution of the problem is that suggested by the late Mr. A . Anderson, and quoted in 

 ' Nests and Eggs/ p. 33, and which is, that the dead leaves sometimes found in the composition of the nest are 

 those which have been pierced to excess, separated from the stalk, and afterwards withered. Writers quoted 

 in Mr. Hume's useful work testify to its building at all times of the year and in very various situations. 

 Mr. Anderson speaks of a nest being taken in his presence from the very top of a high tree and enclosed 

 within a single leaf; another seen by him was composed of seven or eight leaves. Miss Cockburn writes that 

 it builds in coffee-trees in the Nilghiris. Mr. Hume gives the average length of Indian eggs as 064 by 

 0-46 inch. 



Genus PEINIA. 



Bill shorter, slenderer, and more curved than in Orthotonus. Nostrils linear and exposed as 

 in that genus ; tip entire. Wings as in the last genus. Tail variable, of 10 feathers in some, 

 12 in others, much graduated, the feathers lax. Tarsus long, shielded in front, with large but 

 smooth scutes. 



Nuchal " hairs " more developed than in Orthotonus. 



