1833.] On the nest of the Tailor Bird. 503 
of the bird are not likely to draw down a habitation so slightly suspended. A nest 
of this bird is preserved in the British Museum*.’’ 
The second account runs thus : 
“There are now three of such nests in the Museum, all of which certainly give 
some colour to the story of a dead leaf having been sewed to a living one; yet we 
have the authentic narrative of an eye witness of its operations which mentions 
nothing of this kind, but on the contrary serves to confirm our doubts. It will 
consequently be advisable to give this narrative in the language of the original ob- 
server, whose splendid figure we shall also take the liberty of copying. Comparing 
it with the Baya, which we have already described, he says: ‘ Equally curious in 
the structure of its nest, and far superior in the variety of its plumage is the Tailor 
Bird of Hindustan, so called from its instinctive ingenuity in forming its nest 5 it 
first selects a plant with large leaves, and then gathers cotton from the shrub, 
spins it toa thread by means of its long bill and slender feet, and then as with a 
needle, sews the leaves neatly together to conceal its nest. The Tailor Bird (Mota- 
cilla sutoria, Linn.) 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 beau- 
ties. 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 completion of the nest and 
the enlargement of the youngt.’ ” 
In answer to these statements I shall make a few observations on the 
structure of two of these nests now in my possession, which were found 
in the garden of Capt. Hzarsry, 2nd Local Horse. 
The first was neatly formed of raw cotton and bits of cotton threads, 
woven strongly together, thickly lined with horse-hair and supported 
between two leaves on atwig of the amaltds tree (cassia fistula)., 
These two leaves were first placed longitudinally upon each other, and 
stitched in that position from the points to rather more than half way 
up the sides with a strong thread spun from the raw cotton by the 
bird, leaving the entrance to the nest, at the upper end, between the 
stalks of the leaves, at the point where they join the branch of the 
tree. Both of these leaves were of course green and living. Subse- 
quently, however, they were blown down by a high wind, and being 
now withered, the nest appears enclosed between dead leaves. 
Darwin’s account therefore will be found to differ materially from 
mine, inasmuch as the bird neither makes use of a dead leaf in the 
construction of the nest, nor does it stitch it with fibres, but with 
strong cotton threads. The lining also of the nest, instead of being 
“‘ feathers, gossamer and down,” is solely of horse hair}. 
* Zoonomia, S. xvi. 13. 3. + Forses’ Oriental Memoirs, i. 55. 
+ Mr. S. P. Stacy has favored us with two specimens in which also the stitches 
are of spun cotton thread: the nest is of cotton and vegetable fibre.—Ep. 
