depth. It is usually suspended, like a hammock, from the fork of a
branch; sometimes it is attached to the end of a single bough; it then
looks like a ladle, the bough being the handle. It is composed of
cobweb, roots, hair and other soft materials. Three or four tiny
pale-blue eggs are laid.

The iora is a feathered exquisite, about the size of a tomtit. The
cock is arrayed in green, black and gold; his mate is gowned in green
and yellow.

The iora has a great variety of calls, of these a soft and rather
plaintive long-drawn-out whistle is uttered most frequently in April
and May.

In shape and size the nest resembles an after-dinner coffee cup. It is
beautifully woven, and, like those of the white-eye and fantail
flycatcher, covered with cobweb; this gives it a very neat appearance.
In it are laid two or three eggs of salmon hue with reddish-brown and
purple-grey blotches.

Throughout April the sprightly tailor-birds are busy with their nests.
The tailor-bird (_Orthotomus sutorius_) is a wren with a long tail. In
the breeding season the two median caudal feathers of the cock project
as bristles beyond the others. The nest is a wonderful structure.
Having selected a suitable place, which may be a bush in a garden or a
pot plant in a verandah, the hen tailor-bird proceeds to make, with
her sharp bill, a series of punctures along the margins of one or more
leaves. The punctured edges are then drawn together, by means of
strands of cobweb, to form a purse or pocket. When this has been done
the frail bands of cobweb, which hold the edges of the leaves _in
situ_, are strengthened by threads of cotton. Lastly, the purse is
cosily lined with silk-cotton down or other soft material. Into the
cradle, thus formed, three or four white eggs, speckled with red, find
their way.

In April cavities in trees and buildings suitable for nesting purposes
are at a premium owing to the requirements of magpie-robins, brahminy
mynas, common mynas, yellow-throated sparrows and rollers. Not
uncommonly three or four pairs of birds nest in one weather-beaten old
tree.

Bank-mynas, white-breasted kingfishers, bee-eaters and a few belated
sand-martins are nesting in sandbanks in cavities which they
themselves have excavated. The nests of the kingfisher and the
sand-martin have already been described, that of the bank-myna belongs
to May rather than to April.

Bee-eaters working at the nest present a pleasing spectacle. The sexes
excavat