ANIMAL AVOCATIONS 
233 
The tailor-bird displays even more ingenuity 
than the weaver-birds, for it builds its nest 
within the space formed by fixing the edges of 
several leaves together. In the accomplishment 
of this task the bird first of all prepares a thread 
by twisting together such material as vegetable 
fibres, the silk from cocoons, thread, wool, and 
cobwebs, after which it proceeds to pierce a 
row of holes with its beak along the edges of the 
leaves it desires to sew together. The thread 
is then passed backwards and forwards through 
the holes in the manner of a boot being laced 
up, the edges of the leaves being drawn together 
and forming a hollow cone. After this work is 
completed the bird builds a cup-shaped nest 
inside composed of fine vegetable fibres, 
horsehair and slender grass stems. 
It is not always, however, that the tailor- 
bird actually sews the leaves together, for 
occasionally it will attach them to the nest 
itself and leave the edges of the leaves free. 
Mr. Hume, in his description of the nests of 
these birds, states: “I have found them 
between two leaves, the one forming a high 
back, and turned up at the end to support the 
bottom of the nest, the other hiding the nest 
in front, and hanging down well below it, the 
tip only of the first leaf being sewn to the 
middle of the second. I have found them with 
