THE LIVING WORLD. 
354 
pactness of its structure, for it can endure a vast amount of careless handling, 
and still retain its beautiful contour. A specimen in the British Museum 
taken from the banks of a river near Natal, was suspended from two reeds, 
so as to hang over the water, and at no great distance from the surface. 
The entire structure is apparently composed of the same plant, namely, a 
kind of small reed, but the materials are taken from a different portion of the 
plant, according to the part of the nest for which they are required. The 
whole exterior, as well as the walls, are made of the reed-stems, woven very 
closely together, and being of no trifling thickness. There is a considerable 
amount of elasticity in the structure, and the complete nest is so strong that it 
might be kicked down stairs, or be thrown from the top of a monument, 
without much apparent injury. The interior, however, is constructed 
after a very different fashion. Instead of the rough, strong workmanship of 
the exterior, with its reed-stems interlacing each other, as if 
woven by human art, the inside exhibits a lining of flat leaves, 
laid artistically over each other, so as to form a smooth rest¬ 
ing place, but not interlacing at all. Their color is a blue- 
ish gray, and the contrast which they present to the exterior 
is very strongly marked. In size the nest is about as large 
as an ordinary cocoanut, not quite so long, but somewhat more 
oblate. 
The Tailor Bird (Orthotomus longicaudus ), though a 
stranger to Americans, is as popularly known as the most 
prominent crowned head of Europe, on account of the fre¬ 
quency with which it is described in publications, accompanied 
by illustrations of its singular nest. 
The manner in which it constructs its pensile nest is 
very singular. Choosing a convenient leaf, generally one 
which hangs from the end of a slender twig, it pierces a row 
of holes along each edge, using its beak in the same manner 
that a shoemaker uses his awl, the two instruments being very 
similar to each other in shape, though not in material. 
When the holes are completed the bird next procures 
its thread, which is a long fibre of some plant, generally 
nest oe the tailor much longer than is needed for the task which it performs. 
bird ( Sylvia stuoria). Having found its thread, the feathered tailor begins to pass 
it through the holes, drawing the sides of the leaf towards 
each other so as to form a kind of hollow cone, the point downward. Generally 
a single leaf is used for this purpose, but whenever the bird cannot find 
one that is sufficiently large, it sews two together, or even fetches 
another leaf and fastens it with the fibre. Within the hollow thus formed the 
bird next deposits a quantity of soft white down, like short cotton wool, 
and thus constructs a warm, light and elegant nest, which is scarcely 
visible among the leafage of the tree, and which is safe from almost every foe 
except man. 
The tailor bird is a native of India, and is tolerably familiar, haunting 
the habitations of man, and being often seen in the gardens and commons 
feeding away in conscious security. It seems to care little about lofty situa¬ 
tions, and mostly prefers the ground or lower branches of the trees, and flies 
