THE ISLANDS OF THE BAT OF BENGAL. 53 



Hemicyclia andamanica are conspicuous, rise tier above tier, in 

 a luxuriance nowhere to be surpassed ; the foliage is of the 

 most varying tints everywhere, and is relieved by tall straight 

 stems, looking like slender silver columns supporting a multitu- 

 dinous-storied hanging garden. In places enormous creepers 

 hang in gigantic garlands and festoons from tree to tree, an 

 almost unbroken wreath down half a hill side. 



As we steamed slowly back a noble Sea-eagle (Cuncuma leuco- 

 gaster) which we had somewhere disturbed, swept past us (well 

 out of shot) over the tops of the mangroves without one single 

 movement of wing or tail, and with an even firmness of flight 

 that impressed one strangely with a sense of power. It seemed 

 as though it could have held its course unchanged in the teeth 

 of a cyclone. 



Overhead parties of the Andaman Paroquet (P. affinis) kept 

 passing to and fro with straight flight, screaming as they flew 

 a qui mieux, mietix, mostly out of shot, though we did succeed in 

 dropping a couple. Huge Fruit-pigeons {C.sylvatica and palum- 

 boides) kept perpetually crossing from the hill sides on one 

 shore to those on the other, sometimes singly, sometimes in 

 flocks, but almost always high in air. 



Burmese Stork-billed Kingfishers ( P. burmanica) were com- 

 mon, but fled with a harsh, chuckling call whenever we neared 

 them, and in one tiny dark mangrove shaded creek we dis- 

 lodged a lovely purple Kingfisher (H. eoromanda) that darted 

 through the mangroves and was lost to sight before it was pos- 

 sible to raise a gun and fire. On the mangroves sundry Blue 

 Reef Herons (D. sacra) were perched, contemplatively digesting 

 their last meal, but not so lost to the external world as to 

 permit of our securing many. Several Whimbrel occupied 

 similar positions, but these were still more wary. 



About midway in the Straits is a conical rocky islet, perhaps 

 half an acre in extent, rising to an elevation of 70 or 80 feet, and 

 crowned by trees of an equal or greater height ; these trees seem- 

 ed to be a favourite hall-way house of the Fruit-pigeons. During 

 the half hour that we hung about, and remained on, the island 

 we must have seen a couple of hundred. They were always 

 perched on the tops of the highest trees ; we could see them per- 

 fectly from a boat at a distance of 150 yards, and examine 

 them with binoculars almost as well as if they were in the hand, 

 but directly we landed they became invisible. With my half- 

 broken back I could not climb, but my companion crawled up 1 

 to the summit. There at the very roots of the trees, on which 

 they were sitting by dozens, though he could hear their deep coo > 



