process of time he might comprehend that, by means of the needle and thread, a number of small leaves or skins might be made to serve the same purpose as a single large one, and as his instruments improved, so would his work. There are, it is true, certain nations who have been acquainted with the art of sewing from time immemorial, and never seem to have made the least progress in it. The native Australian, for example, displays wonderful ingenuity in making thread from the sinews of the kangaroo's tail, and needles from the emu's bones; but there his invention seems to have stopped, and, up to the present time, the junction of a couple of kangaroo skins, or the sewing together of a few "opossum" furs, seem to be the limits of his powers. Still, in other countries, the needle and thread have, as a rule, exhibited a regular improvement, until they have culminated in the sewing-machine of the present day. Had, however, some good genius enabled the original founder of the art to foresee its effect upon the world, he might well have been proud of his discovery, the earliest of human arts.

The respectable guild of tailors, indeed, were wont to attribute to their mystery an antiquity surpassing that of any other handicraft, and, on the strength of a certain passage in Genesis, claimed Adam as the first tailor. As to the smiths and musicians, the tailors looked down upon them as of comparatively recent origin, and considered even the mysterious order of Free-masons as modern upstarts. Had they been moderately skilled in ornithology, they might have claimed a still older origin, on the grounds that, long before man came on the earth, the needle and the thread were used for sewing two objects together.

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 Orthotomus longicaudus. 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. These holes are not at all regular, and in some cases there are so many of them that the bird seems to have found some special gratification in making them, just as a boy who has a new knife makes havoc on every piece of wood which he can obtain.

When the holes are completed, the bird next procures its thread, which is a long fibre of some plant, generally much longer than is needed for the task which it performs. Having found its thread, the feathered tailor begins to pass it through the holes, drawing the sides of the leaf toward 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 can not 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.

There are several nests of the Tailor Bird in the British Museum, one composed of several leaves, and the other in which one leaf is used. It is a pity that in all instances the leaf has been plucked from the twig on which it grew; and it is to be wished that when other specimens are brought to England the twig will be cut off, and that if the leaf should fall off, it may be replaced on the spot whereon it grew. Beautiful as is the detached nest,

it does not give nearly so vivid an idea of its object as if it were still suspended to its branch.

The Tailor Bird is a native of India, and is tolerably familiar, haunting the habitations of man, and being often seen in the garden's and compounds, feeding away in conscious security. It seems to care little about lofty situations, and mostly prefers the ground, or lower branches of the trees, and flies to and fro with a peculiar undulating flight. Many species of the same genus are known to ornithologists.

THE tailor bird is not the only member of the feathered tribe which sews leaves together in order to form a locality for its nest. A rather pretty bird, the FAN-TAILED WARBLER (Salicaria cisticola), has a similar method of action, though the nest can not be ranked among the pensiles.

This bird builds among reeds, sewing together a number of their flat blades in order to make a hollow wherein its nest may be hidden; but the method which it employs is not precisely the same as that which is used by the tailor bird. Instead of passing its thread continuously through the holes, and thus sewing the leaves together, it has a great number of threads, and makes a knot at the end of each, in order to prevent it from being pulled through the hole. A description and beautiful figure of this bird may be seen in Gould's "Birds of Europe," vol. ii.

THE odd little titmice can be admitted among the Pensile Birds, as one of them constructs a habitation as purely pensile as any which has yet been mentioned, and which yields in beauty to none. This is the PENDULINE TITMOUSE (Ægithalus pendulinus), a native of Southern and Eastern Europe. As is the case with all its family, it is a little bird, scarcely exceeding four inches in length, and being marked with pleasing though not very brilliant colors. In general habits it resembles the bearded titmouse of England, haunting the sides of streams, and feeding upon the seeds of aquatic plants, as well as upon the various insects, larvæ, and small mollusks that are found so plentifully in the water.

The chief point of interest in this bird is, however, concentrated in its nest, which is made in a flask-like shape, and is mostly suspended to the extremity of some twig that overhangs the water. Willows, and other trees that are fond of the water, are favored residences of this curious little bird. The larger end of the nest

hangs downward, so that at a little distance it looks like a huge pear with a rather long stem. The material of the nest is the cottony down of the willow and poplar, and the opening is always at the side. The position chosen is not invariably at the end of a twig, as the nest is sometimes found among the reeds, hidden by their thick stems from observation.

CHAPTER XII.

PENSILE BIRDS (Continued).

Australian Pensiles.-The YELLOW-THROATED SERICORNIS.-Its Habits.-Singular Position for its Nest.-Conscious Security.-The ROCK WARBLER.-Shape and Locality of its Nest.-The YELLOW-TAILED ACANTHIZA.—Its Color and Song.Supplementary Nests.-The PINC-PINC and its Home.-Supposed Use of the supplementary Nest.-The SINGING HONEY-EATER and its Nest.-The Myall or Weeping Acacia.-Various Materials.-The LUNULATED HONEY-EATER.—A new Material. The PAINTED HONEY-EATER, its Habits and Nest.-The Art of Preservation.-Nests and their Branches.-The Color of Eggs.-The WHITE-THROATED HONEY-EATER and its Habits.-Its curious Nest.-Locality of the Nest.-The GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN, and the Resemblance of its Nest to those of the Honeyeater. The SWALLOW DICEUM.-Its Song, and Beauty of its Plumage.-The Nest, its Materials, Form, and Position.-The MALURUS and its Nest.-The HAMMOCK BIRD.-Singular Method of suspending the Nest.-The WHITE-SHAFTED FANTAIL.-Strange Form of the Nest.-The Appendage or Tail of the Nest.

SOME very remarkable instances of pensile birds' - nests are found in Australia, and for many of them we are indebted to the patient and careful research of Mr. J. Gould, from whose skillful works on ornithology several illustrations have been, by permission, copied.

A very curious instance is found in the nest of the Yellowthroated Sericornis (Sericornis citreogularis), a rather pretty, but not a striking bird. The general color is simple brown, and, as its name imparts, the throat is of a citron-yellow. The only remarkable point in the color, beside the yellow throat, is a rather large patch of black, which envelops the eye and passes down each side of the neck, nearly as far as the shoulders. It is the largest of its genus, and, although not rare, is seldom seen except by those who know where to look for it, as it is scarcely ever observed on the wing, but remains among the thick underwood, flitting occasionally between the branches, but mostly remaining on the ground, where it pecks about in search of the insects on which it feeds.

The reason for its mention in this work is the singular structure of its nest, which is described by Mr. Gould in the following words:

"One of the most interesting points connected with the history of this species is the situation chosen for its nest.

"All those who have rambled in the Australian forests must have observed that, in their more dense and humid parts, an atmosphere peculiarly adapted for the rapid and abundant growth of mosses of various kinds is generated, and that these mosses not only grow upon the trunks of decayed trees, but are often accumulated in large masses at the extremities of the drooping branches. These masses often become of sufficient size to admit of the bird constructing a nest in the centre of them, with so much of art that