THE NATURALIST.

* * * * *

NEST OF THE TAYLOR BIRD.

[Illustration: Nest of the Taylor Bird.]


This is one of the most interesting objects in the whole compass of
Natural History. The little architect is called the _Taylor Bird, Taylor
Wren_, or _Taylor Warbler_, from the art with which it makes its nest,
sewing some dry leaves to a green one at the extremity of a twig, and thus
forming a hollow cone, which it afterwards lines. The general construction
of the nest, as well as a description of a specimen in Dr. Latham's
collection, will be found at page 180, of vol. xiii. of the MIRROR.

The Taylor Bird is only about three and a half inches in length, and
weighs, it is said, three-sixteenths of an ounce; the plumage above is
pale olive yellow; chin and throat yellow; breast and belly dusky white.
It inhabits India, and particularly the Islands of Ceylon. The eggs are
white, and not much larger than what are called ant's eggs.[1]

In constructing the nest, the beak performs the office of drilling in the
leaves the necessary holes, and passing the fibres through them with the
dexterity of a tailor. Even such parts in the rear as are not sufficiently
firm are sewed in like manner.

[20] Notes to Jennings's _Ornithologia_, p. 324.