The disagreement between the popular and the scientific name of the
tailor-bird (_Orthotomus sutorius_) must, I suppose, be attributed to the
fact that the average ornithologist is not learned in the Classics. I
freely admit that I did not notice the discrepancy until it was pointed
out to me. _Orthotomus sutorius_ means, not the tailoring, but the
cobbling _Orthotomus_. It was, I believe, Forester who, considerably over
a century ago, gave the bird the specific name which it now possesses, or
rather the allied name, _sutoria_. If he wrote this in mistake for
_sartoria_, the error was a stroke of genius, since the bird should
certainly be called the cobbler rather than the tailor. The so-called
sewing of the nest is undoubtedly a great performance for a little bird
that does not possess a workbox. Nevertheless, if the _dirzie_ who squats
in the verandah did not work more neatly than the tailor-bird he would
soon lose his place. _Orthotomus sutorius_ does not sew leaves one to
another, it merely cobbles them together, much as the “boy” cobbles
together the holes in his master’s socks.
When last I wrote about the tailor-bird, I had honestly to admit that I
did not know how the bird did its work. My attitude towards its sewing
was then that of the child who sings—
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!