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THE TRAVELS OF
and produce from inciſions at the top, the toddy or liquor drawn from them, of which the arrack that is made,is eſteemed; much better than that from the cocoa-nut tree. They-are generally cultivated near the ſea-ſide, as they thrive beſt in a ſandy ſoil. It is on this tree that the toddy birds, ſo called from their attachment to-it, build their: exquiſitely curious neſts, wrought out of the thinneſt reeds and filaments of branches, with inimitable mechaniſm. The birds themſelves are about the bigneſs, of a partridge, but of no conſideration either for plumage, ſong, or the table.
The banian tree, which is a ſpecies of fig, grows here to an enor-
mous
