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STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
fashion. Instead of the rough, strong workmanship of the I 
exterior, with its reed-stems interlacing among each other, as if 
woven by human art, and its pale yellow hue, the inside exhibits 
a lining of flat leaves, laid artistically over each other so as to 
form a soft, smooth resting-place, but not interlacing at all, ! 
being held in their place by their own elasticity. Their colour I 
is of a pale bluish grey, and the contrast which they present to 
THE TAILOR BIRD. 
the exterior is very strongly marked. In size the nest is about 
as large as an ordinary cocoa-nut — not quite so long, though : 
broader. 
The wonderful little bird, whose portrait is accurately given 
in the accompanying illustration, is popularly known by the 
appropriate title of Tailor Bird, its scientific name being Or - 
