i8 on anmal instinct. March']. 



stinguifti any other language. The cat is, in many- 

 cases, as tame as the dog ; but it never can be taught 

 to understand the language of its master's eye, 

 like this engaging domestic. " The ox knoweth 

 his owner, and the afs his master's crib ;" they can 

 be rendered tame and gentle ; but how few are the 

 lefsons they can be taught when compared with the 

 elephant ? The tractability of animals is not indeed 

 at all connected with their docility. The monkey, 

 even in its wild state, mimics every thing it sees done 

 by man ; but many animals are more tractable than 

 it is. 



Quadrupeds, in general, pofsefs this talent of doci~ 

 lijty in a much higher degree than any other animals ; 

 and though many of the feathered tribe can be easily 

 tjimed, and rendered very gentle and familiar with 

 man, yet, unlefs it be in respect to singing alone, 

 xyhich they acquire merely by a long continued re- 

 petition of the sanae sounds, they are not in general 

 jsusceptible of any culture. Even the carrying 

 pigeon, which has been employed for conveying let- 

 ters from a distance, docs it merely by an instinctive 

 propensity to return to its former place of abode. 

 The following instance, however, as it is a singular 

 exception to a general rule, deserves to be very gene- 

 rally known. I met with it in a book that is in the 

 hands of few persons, Asiatic researches^ vol. ii. 

 Account of the Baya, or East Indian gross beak. 

 " The little bird called haya, in Hindi," writes 

 Athus Ali Khan, of Behli, who communicates this 

 article, " may be taught with ease to fetch a piece of 

 paper, or any small thing that his master points out 



