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HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



The Tailor Bird, 



When the holes are completed, the bird next procures its 

 thread, which is a long fibre of some plant, generally much longer 

 than is needed for the task which it performs. Having found its 

 thread, the feathered tailor begins to pass it through the holes, 

 drawing the sides of the leaf toward each other, so as to form a 

 kind of hollow cone, the point downward. Generally a single 

 leaf is used for this purpose, but whenever the bird can not find 

 one that is sufficiently large, it sews two together, or even fetches 

 another leaf and fastens it with the fibre. Within the hollow thus 

 formed the bird next deposits a quantity of soft white down, like 

 short cotton-wool, and thus constructs a warm, light, and elegant 

 nest, which is scarcely visible among the leafage of the tree, and 

 which is safe from almost every foe except man. 



There are several nests of the Tailor Bird in the British Muse- 

 um, one composed of several leaves, and the other in which one 

 leaf is used. It is a pity that in all instances the leaf has been 

 plucked from the twig on which it grew ; and it is to be wished 

 that when other specimens are brought to England the twig will 

 be cut off, and that if the leaf should fall off, it may be replaced 

 on the spot whereon it grew. Beautiful as is the detached nest. 



