Orthotomus

Bush warblers are particularly newsworthy right now (to my mind at any rate) given that the just-published oscine supertree of Jønsson & Fjeldså (2006) found Cettia to be diphyletic, with C. cetti grouping with the tesias* and Urosphena (the stubtails) while the Japanese bush warbler C. diphone grouped with the Broad-billed flycatcher-warbler Tickellia hodgsoni and Orthotomus (the tailorbirds).

Archive 2006-05-01 Darren Naish 2006

Two of the birds, the Udzungwa forest-partridge (Xenoperdix udzungwensis) and the African tailor bird (Orthotomus metopias), have affinities with living species in Southeast Asia, suggesting an ancient forest connection to the East.

Eastern Arc forests 2007

The famous tailor-bird (_Orthotomus sartorius_) is the best known of the warblers distinguished on account of architectural skill.

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

At Coonoor the tailor-bird (_Orthotomus sartorius_) is nearly as abundant as it is in the plains.

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

The tailor-bird (_Orthotomus sutorius_) is a wren with a long tail.

A Bird Calendar for Northern India Douglas Dewar 1916

_Orthotomus_; in fact, many of the nests built by these two species so closely resemble each other that it would be difficult to distinguish them were there not very generally a difference in the lining.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

The nests, very ingeniously made, are invariably sewn to one or two leaves in the centre of one of the above-named bushes, the entrance above, just as in the nest of an _Orthotomus_.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

My notes only mention two nests with eggs, on the 22nd and 25th August, but I found some much later; and I am almost certain it begins to lay much earlier, if not actually at the beginning of the monsoon, like _Orthotomus_ and _Prinia_.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

A nest of this species found in Native Sikhim, below Namtchu, on the 28th July, is a regular Tailor-bird's nest, absolutely undistinguishable from the one also sent me by Mr. Mandelli as belonging to _Orthotomus atrigularis_, so that for the moment I have some doubts as to the authenticity of this nest.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

[Footnote 1: Orthotomus longicauda, _Gmel_.] [Footnote 2: P.oceus baya, _Blyth_; P. P.ilippinus, _Auct_.] _Crows_.

Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and Productions, Volume 1 (of 2) James Emerson Tennent 1836