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or any small thing that his master 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 asserted, 

 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 instance of his 

 docility I can myself mention with confidence, having 

 often been an eve-witness of it : the vouno- Hindu 

 women at Banares and m other places wear very thin 

 plates of gold, called ticas, slightly fixed, by way of 

 ornament, between their eye-brows; and, when they 

 pass through the streets, it is not uncommon for the 

 youthful libertines, who amuse themselves with train- 

 ing Bayas, to give them a sign which they under- 

 stand, and send them to pluck the pieces of gold 

 from the foreheads of their mistresses, which they 

 bring in triumph to the lovers. The Bay a feeds 

 naturally on grasshoppers and other insects, but will 

 subsist, when tame, on pulse macerated in water. 

 His flesh is warm and drying, of easy digestion, and 

 recommended, in medical books, as a solvent of 

 stone in the bladder or kidneys ; but of that virtue 

 there is no sufficient 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 exquisitely delicate. When many 

 Bayas are assembled on a high tree, they make a 

 lively din, but it is rather chirping than singing ; 

 their want of musical talents is, however, amply 

 supplied by their wonderful sagacity, in which they 

 are not excelled by any feathered inhabitants of the 

 forest. 



