21 8 Twelve Months With 



Three of the most remarkable of the bird archi- 

 tects are natives of India, the land of the Taj 

 Mahal! — the tailor bird (Sylvia sutoria), the 

 hornbill (Buceros) and the sociable grosbeak 

 (Ploeceus socius Cuvier). 



Every one has heard of the tailor bird, that 

 sews the edges of leaves together with stitches as 

 regular as those of an experienced seamstress, and 

 then fills the receptacle with its nest. 



The female hornbill fashions her nest with 

 especial care for her protection during incuba- 

 tion. She plasters up with her own excrement 

 the orifice of the cavity in which she sits on her 

 eggs, leaving only a small opening through which 

 the male feeds her, being thus kept a close prisoner 

 during the whole period of incubation. 



The sociable grosbeak perhaps exhibits the most 

 remarkable instinct for real bird architecture of 

 any living species. As many as eight hundred or 

 one thousand of the nests of this bird have been 

 found in one tree, "covered with one general roof, 

 resembling that of a thatched house, and project- 

 ing over the entrance of the nest. 



Beneath this roof there are many entrances, each 

 of which forms, as it were, a regular street, with 

 nests on either side, about two inches distant from 

 each other." * 



One of the most ingenious and interesting nests 

 of the birds of our latitude is that of the orchard 

 oriole. It is pensile, or suspended, like that of 



* Nuttall, Birds of U. S. and Can., p. xxx. 



