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Under the shade of these trees, and of the banian and tamarind 
groves, the weavers every morning fix their looms, and remove them 
in the evening: they are constructed with the greatest simplicity; it 
is astonishing how few materials are required to fabricate the most 
delicate muslins. 
The lanes near Surat afford delightful rides; the eye wanders 
over extensive scenes of cultivation, villages, farms, and lakes, em- 
bellished by the nymphea in every pleasing variety: the lakes 
abound with water-fowl; the fields are enlivened by partridges, quails, 
and green pigeons; and the mango groves filled with monkeys, 
squirrels, and peacocks. Parrots, larks, doves, ainadavads, tooli- 
ties, and bulbuls, enliven the walks; but gay plumage generally 
supersedes melody in the Asiatic birds; the amadavads are very- 
small, beautifully arrayed in scarlet, yellow, brown and white; 1 
have seen a hundred together in a cage, but never two of them 
marked alike, and one only sings at a time, in a low simple note. 
The toohtee, a pretty bird, is so called from a monotonous repeti- 
tion of its own name, like the cuckoo in England. 
The surrounding plains abound with deer, antelopes, hares, 
and feathered game: the eastern hills, wild and woody, are infested 
by tigers, leopards, hyenas, wolves, and other ferocious animals, 
whom hunger impels to commit depredations in cultivated tracts 
near the city. The principal Moguls at Surat keep them in me- 
nageries; particularly the leopard cheeta, and syah gush, which af- 
ford them much diversion in hunting antelopes. 
The tiger, leopard, and hyena are well known in Europe, and 
therefore need no minute description ; the largest hyaena I ever saw 
was in the nabob’s menagerie; his head resembled that of a wolf, but 
