92 
POPULAR HISTORY OP BIRDS. 
united into a comfortable receptacle for its eggs and young, 
with cobwebs and vegetable fibres, while the inside is lined 
with feathers and wool or hair : it is placed generally in the 
hollow part of a tree, a few feet above the ground. There 
are usually two or three broods in the course of a year. 
Another species, the Petroica phoenicea, which is very 
abundant in Van Diemen^s Land, is so familiar, that Gould 
mentions his taking a nest of it from a shelving bank in the 
streets of Hobart Town ; and in the gardens and fields of 
the neighbourhood it readily takes up its abode, being quite 
fearless of the vicinity of man. 
Paraed as many birds are for skill and contrivance in the 
architecture of their nests, no genus has obtained so 
much celebrity as the Tailor-bird of India. This bird is 
a species of Dr. Horsfield's genus OrtJiotomus^ , and is not 
uncommon in various parts of India, especially frequenting 
gardens and cultivated ground. Mr. Jerdon describes it in 
the * Madras Journal^ (voL xi. p. 2), as living in pairs or in 
small flocks, and as being always engaged in hopping about 
the branches of trees and shrubs, peas and other vegetables, 
with a loud reiterated note, picking up ants and small 
* Orthotomus Beyinettii, Sykes ; by Lieutenant Hutton it is described as 
Sylvia ruficapilla ; and it may be the Sylvia loyigicauda^ Vieillot. 
