ON

THE BAYA, OR INDIAN GROSS-BEAK.

Described by AT'HAR ALI' KHA'N of Dehli.

TRANSLATED BY THE PRESIDENT.

THE little bird, called Bayà in Hindì, Berbera in Sanscrit, Bábíï in

the dialect of Bengal, Cibù in Perfian, and Tenawwit in Arabick, from his remarkably pendent neft, is rather larger than a sparrow, with yellowbrown plumage, a yellowish head and feet, a light-coloured breast, and a conick beak very thick in proportion to his body. This bird is exceedingly common in Hindustàn: he is astonishingly sensible, faithful, and docile, never voluntarily deserting the place where his young were hatched, but not averse, like most other birds, to the society of mankind, and easily taught to perch on the hand of his master. In a ftate of nature he generally builds his neft on the highest tree, that he can find, efpecially on the palmyra, or on the Indian fig-tree, and he prefers that, which happens to overhang a well or a rivulet: he makes it of grass, which he weaves like cloth and fhapes like a large bottle, fufpending it firmly on the branches, but fo as to rock with the wind, and placing it with its entrance downwards to fecure it from birds of prey. His nest ufually confifts of two or three chambers; and it is the popular belief, that he lights them with fire-flies, which he catches alive at night and confines with moist clay, or with cow-dung: that fuch flies are often found

in his neft, where pieces of cow-dung are also stuck, is indubitable; but,

as their light could be of little use to him, it seems probable that he only feeds on them. He may be taught with ease to fetch a piece of paper, or any fmall thing, that his mafter points out to him: it is an attested fact, that, if a ring be dropped into a deep well, and a signal given to him, he will fly down with amazing celerity, catch the ring before it touches the water, and bring it up to his master with apparent exultation; and it is confidently afferted, that, if a house or any other place be shown to him once or twice, he will carry a note thither immediately on a proper signal being made. One inftance of his docility I can myself mention with confidence, having often been an eye witnefs of it: the young Hindu women at Banáres and in other places wear very thin plates of gold, called tíca's, flightly fixed by way of ornament between their eyebrows; and, when they pass through the streets, it is not uncommon for the youthful libertines, who amuse themselves with training Bayà's, to give them a sign which they understand, and fend them to pluck the pieces of gold from the foreheads of their mistreffes, which they bring in triumph to the lovers. The Bayà feeds naturally on grass-hoppers and other infects, but will fubfift, when tame, on pulse macerated in water: his flesh is warm and drying, of easy digeftion, and recommended, in medical books, as a folvent of ftone in the bladder or kidneys; but of that virtue there is no fufficient proof. The female lays many beautiful eggs resembling large pearls: the white of them, when they are boiled, is transparent, and the flavour of them is exquifitely delicate. When many Bayàs are affembled on a high tree, they make a lively din, but it is rather chirping than finging; their want of mufical talents is, however, amply supplied by their wonderful fagacity, in which they are not excelled by any feathered inhabitants of the forest.

ON

ON

THE PANGOLIN OF BAHAR.

Sent by MATTHEW LESLIE, Esq.

AND DESCRIBED BY THE PRESIDENT.

THE fingular animal, which M. BUFFON describes by the name of Pangolin, is well known in Europe fince the publication of his Natural History and GOLDSMITH's elegant abridgement of it; but, if the figure exhibited by BUFFON was accurately delineated from the three animals, the spoils of which he had examined, we must confider that, which has been lately brought from Caracdíah to Chitra, and sent thence to the Presidency, as a remarkable variety, if not a different species, of the Pangolin: ours has hardly any neck, and, though fome filaments are discernible between the scales, they can scarce be called briftles; but the principal difference is in the tail; that of BUFFON's animal being long, and tapering almost to a point, while that of ours is much shorter, ends obtufely, and resembles in form and flexibility the tail of a lobster. In other respects, as far as we can judge from the dead subject, it has all the characters of BUFFON's Pangolin; a name derived from that, by which the animal is distinguished in Java, and confequently preferable to Manis or Pholidótus, or any other appellation deduced from an European language. As to the fcaly lizard, the fcaled Armadillo, and the five-nailed Ant-eater, they are manifeftly improper defignations of this animal; which is neither a lizard, nor an armadillo in the common acceptation; and, though it be