A JUNGLE PATH 127 



comparatively large, white eggs, or ugly, unfledged nestlings. 

 Fortunately for the birds, they are builders of the green variety 

 of nest ; for had these been white, they would not long have 

 remained undisturbed by the Chinese. 



Swifts and bats — the one as graceful as the other is hideous — 

 would seem queer neighbours, although there is a certain affinity 

 between the two, for both enjoy the same food — flies and other 

 insects — and obtain it on the wing without mutual interference ; for 

 the first hunt by day, and the others are nocturnal. In the cave, 

 the swallows breed at the inner end, while the bats congregate 

 near the mouth. 



Another small cave was inhabited by bats only, and so thickly 

 were they suspended from the walls, that one could kill a dozen at 

 one blow. For long after we left the spot, clouds of swifts whirled 

 about the entrance ; but the bats, when disturbed, immediately 

 disappeared in the jungle above. 



The only path on Little Nicobar runs across its northern 

 peninsula. It starts near a couple of dilapidated huts opposite 

 Pulo Milo, and, running first through a belt of tangled scrub, 

 crosses the little range of hills near the western coast, and then, 

 traversing a stretch of rich flat soil, covered with splendid open 

 forest, and great numbers of the Nicobar palm {P. augusta), 

 finally comes out on the east coast opposite the small island 

 of Menchal, which lies a mile or so distant, and is only 

 half a square mile in area. It is covered with forest, contain- 

 ing many coco palms and tree ferns, and also clumps of two 

 species of giant bamboo {Bambusa brandisii and Gigatitockloa 

 vtacrostachya). It is of sandstone formation, covered with deep 

 soil or sharply-worn coral. Somewhat farther down the coast is 

 a small village, and the path has been made to connect this with 

 Pulo Milo. 



The forest through which the path ran was our favourite 

 collecting ground. We met there for the first time the beautiful 

 little sunbird Aethopyga nicobarica, with crown and tail dark 

 shining blue, throat and breast scarlet, through which ran two 

 moustachial streaks of brilliant blue, the remaining plumage olive 



