BIRDS. 



323 



the leaves neatly together to conceal its nest. . . . Often," 

 says the describer, "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 young." * Other authorities affirm 

 that it "picks up a dead leaf and sews it to the side of a living 

 one." 



Probably, as with our native birds, some diversity exists 

 in the materials and in the workmanship of different indi- 

 viduals of the same species. Mr E. L. Layard, in his 

 " Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon/' where he describes 

 this little bird as "everywhere common," says : — " It builds 

 in broad-leaved shrubs. The nest is generally composed of 

 cottony fibres mingled with horse-hair, and enclosed be- 

 tween two leaves, whose edges are sewn together with cob- 

 web. I once saw a nest built among the narrow leaves of 

 the oleander (Nerium odorum). It was constructed entirely 

 of cocoa-nut fibres, and at least a dozen leaves were drawn 

 into the shape of a dome, and securely stitched together, 

 a small entrance being left at one side." f 



One of our native birds, the Long-tailed Tit (Parus 

 caudatus), familiarly known by the homely names of "Poke- 

 pudding," " Long Tom," &c., makes a nest which has been 

 much admired for the ingenuity of its construction, com- 

 bining security, warmth, compactness, and beauty. It is 

 a hollow ball of moss and wool, profusely lined with soft 

 feathers, and having only a small hole for entrance; not 

 unfrequently the structure is prolonged into the shape of 

 a bottle, the entrance being through the neck. But the 

 bottle-nests of the Pensile Grosbeak of Africa (Loxiapen- 



* Forbes's -'Oriental Memoirs," i. 55. f "Annals If. H.," Oct. 1S53. 



