ORTHOTOMTJS.	233
neatly constructed of wool and fine vegetable fibres, the bottom
being thinly lined with horsehair. In this lay three tiny delicate
bluish-white eggs, with a few pale reddish-brown blotches at the
large ends, and just a very few spots and specks of the same colour
elsewhere."
Dr. Jerdon says :—"The Tailor-bird makes its nest with cotton,
wool, and various other soft materials, sometimes also lined with
hair, and draws together one leaf or more, generally two leaves,
on each side of the nest, and stitches them together with cotton,
either woven by itself, or cotton-thread picked up, and after passing
the thread through the leaf, it makes a knot at the end to fix it.
I have seen a Tailor-bird at Saugor watch till the native tailor had
left the verandah where he had been working, fly in, seize some
pieces of the thread that were lying about, and go off in triumph
with them ; this was repeated in my presence several days running.
I have known many different trees selected to build in ; in gardens
very often a guava-tree. The nest is generally built at from 2 to
4 feet above the ground. The eggs are two, three, or four in
number, and in every case which I have seen were white spotted
with reddish brown chiefly at the large end.... Layard describes
one nest made of cocoanut-fibre entirely, with a dozen leaves of
oleander drawn and stitched together. I cannot call to recollection
ever having seen a nest made with more than two leaves.. . .Pen-
nant gives the earliest, though somewhat erroneous, account of the
nest. He says : ' The bird picks up a dead leaf and, surprising to
relate, sews it to the side of a living one.'"
I have often seen nests made between many leaves, and I have
seen plenty with a dead leaf stitched to a yet living one; but in
these points my experience entirely coincides with that of the iate
Mr. A. Anderson, whose note I proceed to quote:—
" The dry leaves that are sometimes met with attached to the
nest of this species, and which gave rise to the erroneous idea that
the ' bird picks up a dead leaf and, surprising to relate, sews it to
the side of a living one/ are easily accounted for.
"I took a nest of the Tailor-bird a short time ago"(llth July,
1871) from a brinjal plant (Solanum esculentum), which had all
the appearance of having had dry leaves attached to it. The nest
originally consisted of three leaves, but two of them had been
pierced (in the act of passing the thread through them) to excess,
and had in consequence not only decayed, but actually separated
from the stem of the plant. These decayed leaves were hanging
from the side of the nest by a mere thread, and could have been
removed with perfect safety. Perhaps instinct teaches the birds
to injure certain leaves in order that they may decay ?
" Jerdon says that he does not remember ever having seen a nest
made with more than two leaves. I have found the nest of this
species vary considerably in appearance, size, and in the number
of leaves employed, and, I would also add, in the site selected, as
well as in the markings of the eggs, which latter never exceed
four in number.