are never found
in the same nest. All the eggs in each nest always belong to one or
the other type.

The parent birds that lay these very different looking eggs certainly
do not differ; that I have positively satisfied _myself_.

I quote an exact description of a nest which I took at Bareilly, and
which was recorded on the spot:--

"Three of the long ovato-lanceolate leaves of the mango, whose
peduncles sprang from the same point, had been neatly drawn together
with gossamer threads run through the sides of the leaves and knotted
outside, so as to form a cavity like the end of a netted purse, with a
wide slit on the side nearest the trunk beginning near the bottom and
widening upwards. Inside this, the real nest, nearly 3 inches deep and
about 2 inches in diameter, was 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.... Pennant 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 man