before, there is a long conical membrane, like a bladder, which is always inflated, and rises or falls as the animal moves its beak.

The bayà, or Indian gross-beak, is rather larger than a sparrow, with yellow brown plumage, a yellowish bead and feet, a light-coloured breast, and a conic beak, which is very thick in proportion to its body. This little bird is extremely sensible, docile, and faithful; never voluntarily forsaking the place where its offspring were hatched. It is not averse to the society of mankind, and may be taught to perch on the finger. They generally build on the palmyra, or Indian fig-tree, and prefer those branches which happen to overhang a well or rivulet. The nest is made of grass, woven like cloth, shaped like a large bottle, and divided into two or three cham bers. This is suspended firmly on the branches, but so as to rock with the wind; and it is the popular belief that the inhabitant illuminates it with fire-flies, which she catches alive at night and confines with moist clay. This, however, has been doubted by some writers of great respectability.

The bayà, when domesticated, may be taught to fetch or carry a paper or any small thing that his master points out to him. 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 be fore it touches the water, and bring it up with apparent exultation: and it is an attested fact, that at Benares, and other places, the young men, who amuse themselves with training bayas, will fre quently send them to pluck the *ticas from the

Ticas are thin plates of gold, which the Hindoo wo¬ men, wear by way of ornament, slightly fixed between their eye-brows.

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foreheads of their mistresses as they pass through the streets.

The bayà 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 sometimes recommended as a solvent of stone in the bladder or kidneys; but of that virtue there is not sufficient proof. The female lays several beautiful eggs, resembling large pearls; the white of them, when boiled, is perfectly transparent, and their flavour is extremely deli

When several of these birds are assembled on a high tree, they make a lively noise, but it is rather chirping than singing. Their want of musical talents, however, is amply supplied by sagacity, in which they are not excelled by any feathered inhabitant of the forest.

There are various kinds of serpents in India, one of the most remarkable of which, called cobra de capello, is very large, with a monstrous broad neck, and a mark of a dark brown on the forehead, which, viewed before, looks like a pair, of spectacles; but behind like the head of a house cat. The eyes are lively, and full of fire, but the head is small, and the nose flat, though covered with very large scales of a yellow ash colour. The skin is white, and the large tumour on the neck is flat, and defended with oblong smooth scales. The scales on the lower part of the neck are small, and grow larger on the trunk of the body. The teeth are small, and almost hid in their sockets.

serpent of Malabar has a robe, which consue of white, circular scales, from the d of the tail; and there are streaks as hich are broad on the top of the body,

but become narrower as they approach the belly, and sometimes disappear before they reach it. The whitish scales that run cross-ways under the belly, are divided in the middle by a blackish line. The head is furnished with great and small scales, agreeably painted with a mixture of white and black. Seba informs us, that some ladies in the East-Indies are very fond of this serpent, and take delight in. playing with it.

There is another serpent of Malabar, which is equally singular and dangerous. It is no thicker than a man's finger, and yet is five or six feet long, and of a green colour, insomuch that it cannot be distinguished from the grass. It will fly upon passengers, and fix upon their eyes, nose, or ears; but the bite is not venomous; however, under the neck there is a poisonous bladder, which proves fatal when it touches the skin.

Dellon affirms, that in the East-Indies there are serpents of twenty feet in length, and so thick, that they are able to swallow a man. They generally haunt desert places, for, though they are sometimes seen near great towns on the sea-shore, or on the banks of rivers, yet it is generally after some great inundation. He never saw any but what were dead, and they appeared to him like the trunk of a large tree lying on the ground,

ANTIQUITIES

THE elephanta cave; situated in a small island near Bombay, may be justly ranked among the most interesting antiquities of India; for it has not only excited the attention of every curious traveller, but ingenuity has been literally tortured, and conjecture almost exhausted, by the reiterated attempts of the learned to discover the era of its excavation, the purpose for which it was originally designed, and the true meaning of those hieroglyphic figures which are still to be seen sculptured on the walls.

This cave presents itself about half way up the ascent of the rocky hill, from whose bosom it is excavated; and the principal entrance is from the north. The massy roof is supported by four rows of columns regularly disposed, but of an order in architecture different from any in modern use. Each pillar stands upon a square pedestal, and is finely fluted; but, instead of being cylindrical, gradually bulges out toward the centre. The capital is also fluted, and has the appearance of a cushion pressed flat by the enormous weight of the superincumbent mountain. Above these columns there runs a stone ridge, resembling a beam, cut out of the rock, and richly adorned with carved work; and along the sides of the cavern are ranged forty or fifty co

The island of Elephanta is said to derive its name from the statue of an elephant cut out of the rock, conspicuously standing on the south shore, and so nearly resembling a real elephant, that, at the distance of two hundred yards, a keen eye might be deceived by the litude.

lossal statues, which, as well as the pillars, are shaped in the solid rock. Some of these figures wear rich diadems; others have on their heads a sort of pyramidal helmet; and others display only bushy ringlets of curled or flowing hair. Many of them have four or six hands, in which they grasp the weapons of war and the trophies of peace; the symbols of justice and the ensigns of religion. Some of their countenances are extremely terrific, and some are marked with an air of deep dejection, while others are distinguished by a placid and serene benignity.

At the upper end of the cave, amidst a profusion of sculpture, appears an enormous bust with three heads, which is supposed to represent the great triple deity of India, Brahma, Veeshnu, and Sceva. The middle face, which is presented full, and expresses a dignified composure, is said to be upwards of five feet in length, and nearly four in width. The face on the right was probably designed to represent the amiable attribute of the preserver Veeshnu, as the face is literally illumined with smiles, and looks enamoured on a bunch of flowers which its left hand holds up to view the right hand holds a fruit resembling a pomegranate, and on one of the wrists appears à ring, like that, worn by the modern Hindoos. But the head on the left is certainly designed to express the dreadful attributes of the great destroyer Mahadeo; for the features appear distorted by contempt and fury; serpents supply the place of hair; the tongue is violently thrust out between the teeth; the representation of a human skull is conspicuous on the covering of the head; and the right hand grasps a hooded snake which appears to be about a foot in thick.