322 FAUNA OF ANDAMANS AND NICOBARS 



the process by which they have been broken up into islands is — 

 except in the cases of Narkondam and Barren Island — com- 

 paratively recent. This theory is fully borne out by the greatly 

 localised nature of the fauna, nearly every island possessing its 

 own peculiar species of terrestrial mammals. 



Mammals. 



The mammalian fauna of the .A.ndamans and Nicobars is now 

 known to consist of 35 positively identified species, i sub-species, 

 and 4 others whose status is still doubtful. 



Of this total of 40 animals, 19 are found in the former (if we 

 leave out a dugong, which, though at present reported from the 

 Andamans, will certainly be found to occur in the Nicobars), 22 

 in the latter. Only two species are common to both groups, and 

 both these are bats — Pteropus nicobariais, a wide-flying species 

 found also in the Malay Peninsula and Java, and P. vampyrus — 

 of which further knowledge will doubtless show that each group 

 possesses its own variety. 



To the Andamans 12 species are peculiar, the others being 

 Mus niuscuhis ; Felis chaiis, whose identification is doubtful ; 4 

 bats ; and a monkey, Macacus coininus^ in all probability in- 

 troduced. 



The Nicobars possess 14 peculiar species and i sub-species, and 

 the remaining members are Mus alexandrinns, and 6 bats. 



Not only is the peculiarity marked among the terrestrial, but 

 among the winged animals, which form so large a part of the 

 fauna ; also, of the 7 bats occurring in the Andamans, 3 are 

 endemic, while the same is the case with 5 of the 1 1 in the 

 Nicobars. 



Thus it is to be noted that in the Andamans all the 1 1 

 terrestrial mammals — except M. musculus, M. coininus (intro- 

 duced ?) and the doubtful F. cJiaus — are peculiar, and also 3 out 

 of 7 bats ; while in the Nicobars, only i species — J\L alexandrinus 

 — of 10 terrestrial is other than endemic, and of the 11 bats 5 

 (nearly halfj are peculiar. Remarkable as is the state of things 



