1892.] D. Pram — Fauna of Narcondam and Barren Island. Ill 



visit we could see when we landed, from the new foot-prints on the wet 

 sand round the spring and from the fresh dang there and along the 

 pathway, that the goats had visited the spot overnight.* 



BlBDS : — A brief sketch of the Avi-fauna of the islands has already- 

 been written by Mr. A. O. Hume.f His visit to each island was how- 

 ever very short ; it may not therefore be uninteresting to give a list 

 of the birds seen by him and to mention in addition those seen and 

 recognised by the writer. It is unnecessary to say that even now the 

 list must be very far from complete. 



List of the Birds of Narcondam and Barren Island. 



1. Cuncuma leucogaster Gmel. (White-bellied Sea-Eagle.) Stray 

 Feathers ii, 149. 



Very plentiful in both islands, bat especially in Narcondam, where 

 to watch six or eight of them sweep and wheel and dart at each other, 

 apparently in play, far overhead, was a most fascinating occupation. 

 While ascending the mountain that composes the island we saw what 

 was evidently the nest of this species at about 1,500 ft. elev. 



Distrib. India, Burma, Andamans, Nicobars, Malaya. 



2. Collocalia Linchi Horsf. (Rock Swiftlet.) Stray Feathers ii, 

 157. 



A swiftlet is very common on both islands and can be seen as one 

 rows along the coast darting in and out from every cavern hollowed by 

 the sea under the old lava-flows. As no edible birds'-nests are found 

 on either island this is most probably the species that one observes. J 



Distrib. Andamans, Nicobars, Malaya. 



* The landing of goats on such islands has litt'.e to recommend it from the 

 economic point of view while the humanitarian aspect of the act has two sides. It 

 is no doubt praiseworthy to attempt to stock such islands with goats in the hope 

 that their flesh may prove of use to shipwrecked mariners, but to deliberately condemn 

 the animals to a death by thirst — as is done every time that goats are landed on Nar- 

 condam — appears to the writer to be an act which should not be repeated. Nor is 

 it at all certain that the landing of goats on Barren Island may not be — all the 

 ) sioul conditions of the island considered — an act of even more refined crueltv. 



f Stray Feathers, vol ii, pp 103 — 110. The localities are again mentioned in 

 connection with the birds themselves in Mr. Hume's detailed list of Andamans 

 birds, I. c pp 139-324. 



X It ought to be observed however that some recent writers, (very notably 

 Gnillemard, in the Cruise of the Marchesa, vol. iij, return to the view which Hume, 

 I. c, so strenuously opposes and apparently satisfactorily refutes, that Collocalia 

 Linchi is the swift which makes edible nests. If Guillemard be right then the 

 Hock Swiftlet referrod to by Mr. Hume and the writer must be a different species. 



