BIRDS. 
323 
the leaves neatly together to conceal its nest. . . . Often,” 
says the describe! - , “ have I watched the progress of an 
industrious pair of Tailor-birds in ray 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 oj a living 
one'' 
Probably, as with our native birds, some diversity exists 
in the materials and in the workmauship of different indi- 
viduals of the same species. Mr E. L. Layard, in his 
“ Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon,” whore he describes 
this little bird as “everywhere common,” says : — “ It builds 
in broad-loaved 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 col- 
web. I once saw a nest built among the narrow leaves of 
the oleander ( Nerium odoruni). It was constructed eutirely 
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.” t 
One of our native birds, the Long-tailed Tit ( Pams 
caudatm), familiarly known by the homely names of “ Poke- 
pudding,” “ Long Tom,” <kc., makes a nest which has been 
much admired for the ingenuity of its constructiou, com- 
bining security, warmth, compactness, and beauty. It is 
a hollow hall 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 ( Loxia pen - 
* Forbes’s “Oriental Memoirs,” i. 56. + “Annals N. H.," Oct. 1853. 
