328 FAUNA OF ANDAMANS AND NICOBARS 



If we conclude that the avifauna of the islands of the Bengal 

 Sea is essentially Indian and not Indo-Burmese and Indo-Malayan, 

 we must accept the fact with the qualification that we find it here 

 in a most imperfect and mutilated form, lacking more or less 

 entirely a large proportion of its characteristic genera, many of 

 which are the strongest and most widely distributed, and to which 

 the climate would appear in every way congenial* 



List of Birds occurring in the Andamans and Nicobar5.\ 

 (A. denotes occurrence in the Andamans, N. in the Nicobars.) 



Corvus macrorhyncus, Wagl. 

 Dendrocitta bayleyi, Tytler 

 Zosterops palpebrosa, Temm. 

 Irena puella. Lath. 

 Otocompsa emeria, Linn, 

 lole nicobarica, Moore 

 Micropus fusciflavescens, 



Hume .... 

 Dicrurus annectens, Hodgs. 

 D. leucogenys, Wald. . 

 Dissemuroides andamanen- 



sis, Tytler 

 D. dicruriformis, Hume 

 D. paradiseus, Linn. . 

 Locustella certhiola, Pall. . 

 L. lanceolata, Temm. . 

 Cisticola cursitans, Frankl. 

 Arundinax sedon, Blyth 

 Phylloscopus fuscatus, Blyth 



A. 

 A. 

 A. 



N. 

 A. 

 A. 



A. N. 



A. 

 A. 

 A. 

 N, 

 A. 

 A. 

 A. 

 A. 

 A. 

 A. 



in captivity in Malaysia), and that, owing to the absence of enemies and general 

 suitability of conditions, it has thriven in the islands, and has become slightly 

 differentiated from the parent stock." 



The megapode also occurs on the Cocos Islands, but not on the Andamans 

 intervening between these and the Nicobars. This may be explained either by 

 the fact that it may formerly have existed on the Andamans, where it has been 

 exterminated by the carnivorous palm-civet common in that group, or that, 

 owing to the hostility of the natives, voyagers were deterred from stopping 

 there and thus causing the introduction of the bird, a course they would be 

 the less persuaded to attempt in that there were no coconuts to attract them. 



* Vide A. O. Hume, Stray Feathers^ vols. ii. and iv. 



t From A. L. Butler's "Birds of the Andamans and Nicobars," Proc. 

 Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, vols. xii. and xiii. 



