THE TAILOH-BIRD. 
93 
grubs, which are crawling on the leaves and bark. When 
it is feeding or hopping about, it has the habit of often 
jerking its tail, somewhat like our wagtail, and it occasion- 
ally raises the feathers on the lower part of the throat, 
displaying a small black stripe which exists on each side. 
Lieutenant Hutton"^ was among the first to give an accurate 
description of the tailor-bird, properly so called, and of its 
nest; for other birds somewhat resembling it in habits, have 
been described as the real Simon Pure,^^ though not nearly 
so able in their sewing powers as this little OrtJiotomus, 
Lieutenant Button describes a nest which he found in the 
garden of Captain (now Brigadier-General) Hearsey, P.L.S.: 
he says it was neatly formed of raw cotton and bits of cot- 
ton threads, woven strongly together, thickly lined wdth 
horse-hair, and supported between two leaves on a twig of 
the Amaltds-ixQQ {Cassia fistula). These two leaves w^ere 
first placed longitudinally upon each other, and stitched in 
that position, from the points to rather more than half-way 
up the sides, with a strong thread ; this was spun from the 
raw cotton by the bird, leaving the entrance to the nest, 
at the upper end, between the stalks of the leaves, at the 
point where they join the branch of the tree. Both of these 
* Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. ii. pp. 502, 505; pi. xviii. 
