MONOGRAPH OF PLOCEUS BAY A 31 
oil ; they carry this bird-lime or lasa in a joint of bamboo 
called a “ porree.” 
I have already referred to the uncommon sagacity and 
ingenuity of the baya bird, and how ready it is to be tamed by 
man, and to follow his instructions. I have not myself noticed 
that the Malay boy has ever trained them, but my friend Mr. 
Thomas Barlow has met with natives in many parts of India 
who bring them round for exhibition, perching usually upon a 
linger and tied round the body sometimes with a worsted cord of 
a red and blue colour, called in Hindustani a “ dori.” One of 
the little tricks they teach them is to hold a small ramrod within 
the beak, and to ram down a little gunpowder previously placed 
in a tiny brass cannon, and then to hold a lighted match and 
fire the cannon off. They are also taught to hold a threaded 
needle in the beak, and with it to pick up coloured glass beads, 
and to string them carefully on the thread. They will also fetch 
and carry flowers placed about by the exhibitor, and dexterously 
snatch off the sectarial mark, or “ bindya ” from the forehead of 
a Hindu woman who may be passing at the time. The travel- 
ling showman, if a well is near, will drop into it a small coin 
called a “ fanam ” in Madras, the twelfth of a rupee, and the 
bird will fly down the well and catch the coin in his beak before 
it touches the water. He will also hold in his beak a miniature 
“ bunneti ” or torch, lighted at both ends, and whirl it round so 
as to form a double circle of fire. He appears to have every 
confidence in his owner, and no fear of danger when he is near. 
Natives of India have of course their usual legends about 
these birds, as indeed they have in connection with most of the 
lower orders of creation in their country. It has been well said 
of the peasant class amongst them that “ the little knowledge 
they have gained, was all from simple Nature drained.” A 
monkey, say they, in a heavy shower of rain got upon a tree full 
of these baya nests, and the birds at once began to taunt him, 
saying, “ You have the hands and feet of a man, and yet you are 
too lazy to build yourself a shelter as we do, and so get wet 
through.” His reply was brief: “ Wait till the rain is over, and 
then I will talk to you,” and when it ceased he set to work and 
destroyed every nest, saying as he did so, “Now you will 
remember never again to cast ridicule at a mischief-loving 
monkey.” The Malays are more given to attach a proverb 
or trite saying to either animate or inanimate Nature, and in 
regard to the singular grasp these baya nests have on a tree, their 
saying is “ that he who could detach one of them without 
breaking it, would find a large golden ball within it.” 
It now only remains for me to thank my friends the Barlows 
for the assistance given me in nests and stuffed specimens from 
India, and also my son-in-law, Mr. Thomas Scott, and Mrs. 
Blundell Brown, for their kind contribution of baya nests from 
the Straits Settlements. 
J. F. A. McNair, 
Scotia, Preston Park, Brighton. Major R.A., C.M.G. 
