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LESSON 15
THE birds in a tropical
forest are exposed to many dangers; and if they were not gifted with instinct,
they would soon fall victims to their enemies. The monkeys are lying in wait for their eggs; and so is the snake, that glides stealthily amongst the bushes.
The mother bird knows very well what she has to expect, if either of these cunning foes should find entrance into her nest; and she generally contrives to conceal it so skilfully, that neither snake nor monkey can flnd it.
The tailor-bird of India is no bigger than the humming-bird, and has a long slender bill, which she uses as a needle. She is very timid and cautious, and will not hang her nest, as many birds do, to the end of a bough. She fancies that it would not be safe even there. She therefore fastens it to the leaf itself; and so carefully that no one can see it.
First of all she picks up a dead leaf from the ground, and then, with her needle and thread (her needle being her bill, and her thread the fibres
of a plant) she sews the dead leaf to the side of a living one, and in the space between she makes her nest.
Small as the space is, it is quite large enough for the tiny eggs she lays; and she lines it with gossamer,
that the little tailor-birds may feel themselves quite snug and comfortable. The leaf, with the nest sewed into it, swings about in the wind as it did before, for the weight of the bird does not draw it down.
It is hidden from the prying eyes of the forest robbers; and here the young brood are hatched in safety. You may see them put out their heads when they are expecting their mother back with an insect or a worm for their food. But at the slightest sound of danger, in they draw them, and then there seems to be nothing but the leaf hanging with the other leaves upon the bough.
Another little bird, called the Indian sparrow, is equally ingenious. She builds her nest on the highest tree she can find, and if it overhangs a river so much the better. She makes it of grass, which she weaves like cloth, and fashions it into the shape of a bottle. It contains several apartments, and the entrance is at the bottom.
The oddest thing about this nest is, that the bird is said to light up her rooms with flre-flies, which she sticks to the walls by pieces of clay!
One naturalist
thinks she must bring them home for food; and another supposes that she places them there to dazzle the eyes of the bats, that would gladly prey upon her young ones if they could.
What are the enemies of birds in a tropical forest? What enables the birds to protect themselves? What bird is very ingenious in concealing her nest? Where does she fasten it? How does she join the two leaves together? What has she for needle and thread? With what is the nest lined? What other bird is equally clever? Where does she prefer to build her nest? Of what is it made? Of what shape is it? Where is the entrance? What reasons have been given for her putting the fire- flies in it?
The Indian Tailor-bird makes her nest in the space between a living leaf on the tree and a dead one which she sews to it, using her bill as needle, and the fi bres of a plant as thread.