feeling of horror from their numbers, and which have become objects of veneration and worship to many of the tribes and castes of India, we will now make a few passing remarks on some other very common and troublesome insects, that alarm the visitor more from their loathsome aspect, than from any power which they possess of inflicting a mortal wound. The scorpion is one of the dreaded inhabitants of Bombay, but it does not attain that large size so peculiar to Africa and the West Indies. It frequents the old ruined bungalows, cotton stores, and other unoccupied buildings; and many of the native coasting vessels, from the nature of their cargo, are said to be often infested by it. The scorpions I have seen in Bombay were of a reddish or dirty yellow hue. They creep into godowns, and cellars, and wage a mortal war with the long-legged spiders already spoken of. As they are very prolific, and bring forth at a birth it is highly necessary to have a proper person occasionally to purify these haunts, so as to prevent them from increasing upon your premises. They inflict with their armed tail a wound which, in irritable and nervous subjects, is often attended by unpleasant symptoms; and I have heard of one or two instances in which death ensued from the poison of the malignant sting of an old scorpion; but if I remember correctly, the victims in these cases were in a bad state of health. During a short sojourn in Guzerat, a distressing event of this kind, which occurs to my fifty or sixty young ones, recollection, took place at one of the military stations. A soldier's wife had brought in some clothes that had been placed out near the barracks in the sun to dry, and having carelessly thrown them upon a bed, she took up a child that was crying in a cradle to quiet it with the breast; and, after hushing it to sleep, laid it upon the bed where the clothes were deposited. In a few minutes the child's screams aroused the mother, when, upon examination, she discovered that she had placed her sleeping babe upon a scorpion, that had been concealed in the clothes. The army surgeon was immediately sent for, but the child expired a short time after his arrival. The genus scolopendra, or centipede, is another very common and troublesome insect in Bombay; indeed, in some parts of the country, centipedes are so numerous, that the inhabitants are obliged to put the feet of their bed-posts in water to prevent these crawling creatures from lodging themselves in the mattress a place in which they are fond of breeding. Like the scorpion, they move about in dark and unfrequented places, and issue forth at night in search of food. I had always an instinctive dread of this insect more so, I really believe, than any other; and can remember, upon my first arrival in Bombay, the precaution I took to guard against them-never putting on a boot, shoe, or glove, without first shaking or carefully examining it. We have all our particular dislikes to one kind of moving creature or another. Some faint at the sight of a spider others at a harmless blue-bottle-I, myself, being terrified beyond measure at the appearance of a centipede, however small. These centipedes inflict a painful, and to young children, a most dangerous wound. A labourer once allowed me to examine his index finger, which had been stung by a centipede while removing some old timber; and the flesh of which had shrivelled up and appeared like dry parchment stretched over the bone. He had ligamentous anchylosis of the first and second joints. The whole finger was of course useless to him, and ought to have been removed; but the poor fellow could never make up his mind to the operation. The first centipede which I saw was in rather a strange place. It fell from the bottom of a dinner-plate that was handed to me at table, but was crushed and dead. As the Hindoo servants will place everything on the floor in the cooking-house, though they have tables provided, it was easy to account for the unwelcome presence of this horrid insect. The centipede grows to five or six inches in length, and, from the number of its legs, is enabled to move very quickly. The hymenopterous insects, such as hornets, wasps, and bees, are very numerous on this and the neighbouring islands. They form their cells in the old trees and excavations of Elephanta and Salsette, and hang in immense clusters from the roofs of these subterranean temples. Some of the hornets are of a large size, and often spread terror among the toddydrawers in the palm-tope by swarming around the trees they have to ascend during the process of tapping. The inferior inhabitants of the fields and woods in India appear to shun the heat of the mid-day sun, as much as man does. It is seldom that you see a bird flying about at this hour, unless it be the large kite or fulvous vulture held sacred by the Hindoos, and protected and encouraged by the English as the natural scavenger of the town and country. He cares little about the heat; for he can keep his thinly feathered body cool by the fanning of his powerful wings. These birds are very tame, and will often sit close to your cook while he is preparing your dinner, and watch anxiously for any stray morsels which that functionary may be pleased to bestow upon them; appearing, from the regularity of their hours of attendance, to have a very good idea of time. They usually announce their arrival by half a dozen loud and shrill notes, uttered at intervals as they sweep round your compound, and finally perch themselves on the roof of an outbuilding, or the topmost branch of a tree, where, if the day is very hot, they spread out their wings and keep up a gentle motion with them on the principle of a fan. Your Portuguese servants, if not prevented, often amuse themselves by setting, near their resting-places, a rat-trap, baited with a piece of meat, which is soon pounced upon by these unconscious birds, who then find themselves caught by the leg between the teeth of this cruel instrument. The Portuguese domestics annoy in this way some Hindoo servant to whom they owe a grudge, and upon whom they wish to revenge themselves, by thus which the Hindoos venerate. destroying the birds Shoot them, they dare not; since the report of the gun would draw the attention of their master or of the police, who would immediately have the offenders punished. In every town throughout the East you meet with these useful birds; indeed, they have evidently been created for the benefit of mankind in that country. Were it not for their services, the air in that hot climate would be constantly tainted by the decaying of animal matter, so injurious to human health; and their keen eyes, and fine sense of smell, enable them to discover at a great distance the dead animals on which they feed. I have counted more than twenty of these kites at a time upon the body of a kid, at the distance of several miles from any village. The jackals, however, had first had their share. The woods, at this season, are alive with the smaller birds, which keep up an incessant din with their chattering and squabbling; but excepting the cooing of the turtle doves, and the occasional familiar note of the Indian cuckoo, which is more sonorous than our migratory bird, there are but few that remind us of the sweet songsters of our own English groves. Nature, however, in this respect, may be said to distribute her favours and gifts equally; since the richness of plumage which distinguishes many of these tropical birds compensates, in a great measure, |