THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 55 



(I am very feeble in ichthyology) what are called rock cods 

 (Seranus, sp.) of half a dozen different species, orange, magenta, 

 crimson, blue, green, black, buffy, one bright color spotted with 

 another, and the broad fins and full round tails, fringed and 

 banded with another. Some of these were upwards of 41bs. in 

 weight, and one of them a gorgeous crimson and blue crea- 

 ture, appeared to us a quarter of an hour later, perhaps because 

 we had fasted long, as delicious on the table as it was lovely 

 in the water. 



There were numbers of other species, but I will not try and 

 describe them, I have not the requisite knowledge, and the 

 majority of my readers, who have not seen alive the fish that 

 haunt the coral reefs, wonld fail to realize or even credit their 

 unearthly beauty. Alas ! that ichthylogists have yet to invent 

 a process of preserving unchanged the " hues of paradise" that 

 adorn them. 



The last thing I heard that night was our Geologist enjoining 

 silence on our Invertebrate ; " Peace" — he said in a low sweet 

 voice, " I would fain be in the land of nod, where Crustaceans 

 cease from troubling, and even Stick-insects are at rest." 



It was scarcely daylight (8th) when we were all stirring; some 

 took a dip over board, heedless of probable sharks, the more 

 prudent contented themselves with buckets. A small stock of 

 provisions was hurriedly shipped, and we landed in two parties 

 along the northern coast of the Straits. 



I landed on a tiny coral beach hemmed in on all sides by 

 mangroves, which elsewhere extended far out into the water. 

 The upper part of the beach was thickly carpeted with a dense 

 growth of a beautiful trailing sand convolvolus Ipomcea, sp., 

 one sheet of dark green glossy leaves, studded with large pale 

 pinky-lilac blooms. 



The mangroves immediately around were of the most 

 intense and vivid green (mostly Rhizophora and Ceriops) 

 as close and dense set as a well-trimmed garden hedge. Sittino- 

 here quiet m the shade, a small party of Pallas' Sand-plover 

 (A, mongolicus) suddenly made their appearance at the waters 

 edge ; I caught sight of them just as they alighted. They lit 

 perhaps a score of them within a circle of a couple of feet 

 diameter. For a moment all stood perfectly still, with their heads 

 low as if listening ; then after a series of queer little jerks, each 

 stood, I might say on tip toes, their heads raised to the utmost 

 possible extent, looking round in all directions. I was lying 

 down, I did not make the slightest movement, and in my dull 

 grey brown suit, they took me, I dare say, for one of the weather- 



