16 BARREN ISLAND AND ARCHIPELAGO 



has been cut here, and a few more yards of open space added 

 there, you find that you can take quite a long walk, entirely 

 uninterrupted by use of the parang' hanging at your side. 



Among the few birds shot that first afternoon were the 

 beautiful Andamanese oriole, with gorgeous plumage of black and 

 }'ellow, and a peculiar cuckoo — Cetitropus andamanensis — soberly 

 clad in brown and grey. This bird was a source of much dis- 

 appointment on one occasion. There are no squirrels known to 

 the Andamans, and seeing what I took for one, without waiting,, 

 in the momentary excitement of an apparently fresh discovery, to 

 look more closely, I made a rapid snap-shot, and down tumbled 

 a cuckoo ; my consequent disgust may be imagined. The bird, 

 however, can easily be mistaken for a small mammal, for besides 

 resembling one, with its dark brown plumage and fairly long tail,, 

 its habit is to spring from bough to bough and creep along the 

 branches in a very rodent-like manner. 



Warned by the fading daylight, we returned to the shore, and 

 found a quarter of a mile of dry coral between ourselves and the 

 water, with the dinghy high and dry, so, after making it fast to 

 the mangroves, we picked a way across the reef and hailed the 

 schooner for another boat. 



These coral-reefs, although their beauty of form and colour — 

 an endless change of myriad shapes and tints — when seen through 

 the clear water from a boat above is quite beyond description, 

 awaken far less admiration when they have to be crossed on foot 

 while the tide is low. It is impossible for even natives to cross 

 them barefooted. Nearest the shore comes first a belt of mud 

 and coral debris that is easily traversed ; next lies a broad strip of 

 sharp and brittle madrepores which break and crumble beneath 

 one's weight ; while, seaward, rise from deep water the Astr?eas — 

 great solid masses of which the reefs are mostly built ; and as one 

 jumps from mound to mound, one vaguely wonders at which of 

 those in front a slip may occur, and as the least result plunge 

 one head over heels into the pools around. With a small boat^ 

 however, shallow and quick-turning, it is generally possible to pass 

 through these latter and reach a point, where, protected by boots. 



