tation does rejoice, for it has been revived and nourished; and the pores of its leaves are freed from dust by these gentle distillations that fall from heaven, unseen by man. Night-dews on this island are very heavy; and I have often been surprised upon returning home between nine and ten of an evening to find my clothes wet and uncomfortable from this cause, though the atmosphere at the time was clear and serene. With the breaking forth of the sun the mist vanishes, and the loveliest of all hours bursts upon the world. Soon, however, the leaves of many of the trees and shrubs begin gradually to droop, so as to offer as small a surface as possible to his withering rays I was often struck with this singular phenomenon, which we cannot look upon but as a beautiful provision for the protection of plants at mid-day. During these comparatively cool hours, there blossom numbers of garden and wild flowers, whose beauty before noon has faded and gone. Butterflies, and a host of minor honey-sucking insects are now on the wing, seeking, while the calix that offers it yet lives, their morning's repast, and flitting about like bright meteors; till, having satisfied their wants, they retire to the shade of some thick grove, there to slumber till the sun sinks low, and fresh blossoms open to them their evening nectaries. Now may be seen the large tree-lizard, remarkable for the curious pouch under his head, very busy and alert, springing from branch to branch, and pouncing upon the poor flies driven into his domain by the ascending sun; his

hour has now arrived, and he must breakfast while opportunity offers. There is another pretty saurian, which also claims our attention; and which has often afforded me amusement of a morning from seven o'clock until nine. He is very swift on his little feet, and is compactly and elegantly formed; having a fine brown shining skin beautifully mottled. He has no pouch like the former; is about fourteen inches in length when full grown; his favourite haunts appear to be in old walls, or under the thatch or tiles of your bungalow; here you may spy him from beneath the arch formed by the half tile, peeping cautiously out with two very bright and sharp eyes, watching, like his tree, neighbour, for any stray insects that may be tempted to creep in under the roof for shelter and protection from the sun. If he is not successful in his sport, he steals out occasionally from his hidingplace, and you are surprised to see so small a head in conjunction with so long a body. If the tiles are not too hot for his feet, he looks about him anxiously, as if he had been decoyed into some unfavourable position, which he wanted to change; but the least noise disturbs him; even a bird flying past will cause him to dart into another opening under the roof, and in a second or two the bright little eyes are again detected, for he is still hungry. I made several attempts to secure a specimen of this lizard, but was always unsuccessful. Not so with the tree-lizards; of them I caught many for examination, by simply passing a loop or running knot made of twine, and

attached to the end of a long bamboo, over their heads, and thus bringing them down from the bough on which they were roosting, often to the amusement of the molly or gardener, who appeared to take a lively interest in the sport, as soon as he found that I did not capture them for any cruel purpose. Both species are very harmless, as indeed are all the lizard tribe; but when crushed or irritated in the hand, they would endeavour to liberate themselves by trying to bite me. They have little power over the muscles of the lower jaw. Like all other reptiles in the East, they both have numerous enemies; and are thus prevented from multiplying to a troublesome extent. The large kites in their mornings' circuits do not consider them beneath their notice; and their young ones are devoured by frogs and snakes. The Zootoca Vivipara, or nimble lizard, so common in summer on our heaths and sunny banks at home, is not unlike the bungalow lizard, though much smaller. They both bring forth their young alive; the eggs being hatched while yet in the body of the parent; consequently they are ovo-viviparous. The vivifying heat of the sun is thought to be necessary for the extrusion of the young from the eggs. I kept a female that had been caught for me, some weeks in a small box covered with a glass lid, and was not a little surprised one morning, when I went to give her the usual allowance of flies, to see five or six young ones running about and tumbling over their mother. Though but a few hours old, they readily seized the

imprisoned insects, and ate them up so rapidly, that the parent stood but a poor chance amongst them. Snakes are not very common on the south side of the Island of Bombay; I only saw two or three during my residence there, though I often hunted for them in the old thorny spurge or Euporbia hedges. The study of animated nature always afforded me the greatest pleasure; and India, where all to me was novel and strange, opened a tempting field for its pursuit. Our servants, well knowing the haunts of these reptiles, would occasionally kill one in the compound early in the morning; while rather torpid after the cold night, they lay coiled up under the shrubs. The natives are very expert in killing the most venomous snakes, and really seem to be more terrified by the sight of some of them than even strangers are. As the Coolies, and many of the poor people go barefooted, they travel over the waste lands with great caution; and practise has given them a quickness of eye in detecting snakes on the ground. As they creep out of their hiding places after dark, and ramble about in search of mice and insects, no one thinks of going out without a lantern, and an attendant with a stout stick, who walks before, and carefully marks the road if an unfrequented one. This of course is only necessary in country places. The cobra de capello, and the bright speckled cobra manilla, are not uncommon on the north and west sides of the island; and many of the private gardens that are densely crowded with shrubs and flowering

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plants, are said to be infested at particular seasons by a small brown snake. An officer, on sick-leave, who was residing in one of the government bungalows at Colabah, about a mile from the Fort of Bombay, was walking up and down one morning under the verandah in a pair of thin slippers, and accidentally trod upon a small snake that was winding itself out of a hole in his path. Within a few minutes afterwards he was seized by the most violent pain in his foot, which soon changed colour, and swelled up enormously to the knee. Sickness, and convulsions, with the usual symptoms of having been poisoned, rapidly appeared; and medical aid was immediately resorted to, but nothing could arrest the progress of the fatal virus. Castor-oil, and other native remedies, were useless here; and the poor gentleman expired in dreadful agonies twenty-four hours after he had been bitten. The fangs of the snake, as it is unnecessary to say, had easily penetrated the flimsy slipper; thus showing the danger of going out in India with a thin covering over the feet. This officer died from the bite of a small snake, known as the carpet snake, from the circumstance of its often creeping into rooms, and hiding under the matting. The carpet snake or cobra minilla is, I believe, one of the most poisonous and subtle reptiles found in the island, and is very difficult to detect in the long and withered grasses.

Turning from these formidable and life-destroying enemies, which, in certain districts, excite such a