i8o BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



lining of a cup made hy sewing two or more leaves 

 together, or the edges of one large one, and is very 

 hard to find. The bill is of course the needle, and 

 the thread is the raw silk of caterpillar-cocoons, 

 which holds by reason of the resistance of this 

 stuflE to the edges of the pierced leaf, for the story 

 that the bird makes a knot is a slight exaggeration, 

 just like the tale of its picking up a dead leaf and 

 sewing it to a live one. Such leaves may be found 

 sewn together, but this is when one leaf has withered 

 after being sewn. 



Several other small Warblers make sewn nests in 

 India, and so do some of the large dull-coloured 

 Sunbirds of the genus Arachnothera, known as 

 Spider-hunters ; in this case the nest is secured to 

 a broad leaf by having part of the material pushed 

 through holes bored in this, but the structure is 

 not nearly so perfect as the little Tailor's. 



So many birds mix the basket-work of their nest 

 with mud — even the Baya putting in a few patches 

 — that complete nests of primitive earthenware are 

 not surprising, though some fibre is generally, if 

 not always, used. Such nests are familiar to us 

 in the case of the House-Martin and Swallow, the 

 former being far the more perfect type. For these 

 the birds simply take up the mud in mouthfuls, and 

 judiciously build little at a time, lest they should 

 overweight the foundations, as White long ago 

 observed in his admirable chapters on these birds. 



Some Indian and Australian Swallows, such as 

 the Striated Swallow (Hirundo striolata) in the 



