THE BIRDS OF TBE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS. 563 



by hornets — a pile of hard clay against a tree trunk, Wardlaw Ramsay saw 

 a pair going in and out of a hole in a tree at Mount Harriet and thought they 

 had young in the hole, 



1048, Sauropatis occipitatis, Blyth. Blanf., Ill, p. 137 ; " Str, Feath,," 

 II, p. 171. 



Extremely common throughout the Nicobars, where it is one of the first 

 birds met with on landing on the snow-white coral beach. Habits similar to 

 those of the last species. Davison found them nesting in clay ants' nests 

 built against trunks of trees, but only succeeded in obtaining a single egg 

 from a shot bird which measured 1*16 x *98. Car Nicobarese : "sukkar," 



1056, Rhytidoceros narcondami, Hume. Blanf,, III, p. 149 ; " Str. 

 Feath.," I, p, 411, Finn. Jour. A. S. B. Vol. LXVI., p. 523. 



Peculiar to the island of Narcondam, a steep jungle covered hill rising 

 abruptly from the deep sea about 80 miles East of the North Andaman. I 

 tried hard to get myself landed on Narcondam by the mail steamer * Shah- 

 jehan, ' which passes close to the island on the Rangoon run, and repasses 

 two days later. Owing to the difficulty of landing on the island the Company 

 objected to this plan, pointing out that if the sea were rough on the return 

 of the ship either she would have to lie off till the sea moderated — possibly 

 entailing an infringement of the mail contract — or the company would be held 

 responsible for leaving me on an uninhabited island without water. Mr. 

 Blauford says it is only known from the pair obtained by Mr, Hume in 1873. 

 There are three or four specimens in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, lately 

 presented by Colonel Temple,® 



1069. Cypselus apus, Linn. Blanf., Ill, p. 165 ; " Str. Feath.," II, 

 p. 156. 



A single specimen was killed at Port Blair on July 30th, 1873. 



1074. Cypselus sDbfdrcatus, Blyth, Blanf,, III, p. 168. 



On the 24th July I watched for ten minutes a small white-rumped Swift 

 hawking round one of the bungalows on Ross Island in company with a num- 

 ber of Collocalias. It passed me several times within a few yards, I took 

 it at the time for affinls, but from the distribution of the two species it 

 was more probably subfurcatus. 



1078. Ch^tura indica, Hume, Blanf., Ill, p. 173 ; "Str. Feath." II, 

 p, 155. 



Common at Port Blair throughout the year, though sometimes one does 

 not notice it for a week or two together. Scores of these splendid Swifts 

 used to assemble every evening round a bungalow on Mount Harriet in which 

 I lived for some time and I never tired of watching their marvellous 

 flight. Marvellous it always is, but round this particular hill top they seem- 

 ed to love to put forth their full powers. Bird after bird would rush past 



*I have since heard that some mora specimens were obtained this year by the officers of 

 the R. I. M. S. " Elphiastone." 



