24 L 



Fryer's account of Bombain and India, regarding those interesting 

 little birds, ploceus baya, the common weaver bird is worthy of 

 preservation. 



" In the meanwhile Nature affords U9 a pleasant Spectacle for 

 this Season, as well as Matter for Admiration ; whereby I know not 

 why we should deny Reason wholly to Animals : unless it be, Man 

 having so much, they seem comparatively to have none. For 

 here is a Bird (having its name from the Tree it chuses for its 

 Sanctuary, the Toddy Tree) that is not only exquisitely curiou 

 in the artificial Composure of its Nest with Hay, but furnished with 

 Devices and Stratagems to secure itself and young ones from its 

 deadly Enemy the Squirrel : as likewise from the Injury of the 

 Weather ; which being unable to oppose, it eludes with this Arti- 

 fice, Contrives the Nest like a Steeple-hive, with winding Meanders ; 

 before which hangs a Penthouse for the Rain to pass, tying it by so 

 slender a Thread to the Bough of the Tree that the Squirrel dare not 

 venture his Body, though his Mouth water at the Eggs and Prey 

 within, yet it is strong enough to bear the hanging habitation of 

 the Ingenious Contriver, free from all the Assaults of its Antagonist, 

 and all the Accidents of Gusts and Storms : Hundreds of these 

 Pendulous Nests may be seen on these Trees. 



Here is another Tree called Brabb,* bodied like a Cocoe, but the 

 Leaves grow round like a Peacock's Tail set upright, of the same 

 substance with the Cocoe, only varying in figure ; the Fruit of 

 this is less than the Cocoe, and filled with Gelly ; the Wine from 

 this is preferred new, before the other, there is a Tuft at top cut 

 off and boil'd eats like Colliflowers : on which Tree these Birds 

 build also." 



This honest gentleman was one of our earliest Indian voyagers, 

 and was a most close and minute observer of natural history albeit, 

 after the liberal fashion of the sailors of those good old days, his 

 time must have been pretty fully occupied in the more exciting 

 pursuits of merchandise and piracy on the high seas combined 

 with bucaneering raids on shore whenever opportunity offered. 



Jerdon's next description is of Sciurus tristriafus, the jungle 



* Brabb is a seaman's term for the Palmyra Palm, whence derived I know 

 not. V. 



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