294 Dr. P. L. Sclater on the Birds of the Comoro Islands. 



A large Crocodile (perhaps Crocodilus vulgaris^) was recently 

 cast ashore at Joanna, but destroyed by the natives before it had 

 reached the marshes. 



I will now proceed to say a few words on each of the four 

 islands, borrowing my remarks nearly entirely from some notes 

 kindly prepared for me by Dr. Kirk : — 



" Grand Comoro is the largest island of the group, the 

 nearest to Africa, and the most northern. In 1858 it was an 

 active volcano; and a stream of lava, which flowed from the 

 eastern side, covered a rich valley, and passed into the sea, where 

 it altered the outline of one of the harbours. On this island 

 there is not much cultivated land, the volcano, a rounded peak 

 probably 8000 feet high, rising directly from the shore. Unlike 

 the other islands. Grand Comoro is bare, and, seen from a few 

 miles' distance, appears destitute of the damp forest which clothes 

 Joanna. Grand Comoro has not been visited by naturalists, and 

 of its productions nothing whatever is known. The inhabitants 

 are said to be constantly at war with one another, and inhospi- 

 table to strangers; they seem to be of more purely African 

 blood, and to have less admixture of Arabic race, than those of 

 the others of the group. As servants they are much esteemed 

 at Zanzibar, and their language and features are those of the 

 common people of the other islands, who are by no means either 

 fierce or warlike. Their language is very nearly allied to the 

 ' Makoa ' dialect of the continent of Africa, which belongs to 

 the system of South-Equatorial African languages. The intro- 

 duction of Hova blood from Madagascar is of very recent occur- 

 rence in Grand Comoro, and has not yet in any respect modified 

 the people. 



" The next island of Mohilla is the smallest of the group. 

 As in the others, its rocks are formed of a volcanic lava, more or 

 less spongy or compact. There are several good flat pieces of 

 land on the island, suitable for the growth of cane ; but the people 

 are in a degraded state, with a dominant aristocracy of emigrant 

 Malagasies, who have converted the island into an entrepot for 

 the slave-trade. Cocoa-nuts and rice are cultivated, and the 



* This species was recently received by the Zoological Society from 

 Madagascar. 



