70 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



pandanns or screw pine jungle surrounding a small fresh 

 water swamp and pond. The island is here very narrow and 

 level, and a struggle of about 150 yards brought me out again 

 on the beach of the beautiful open bay which forms the hollow of 

 the foot. From this level piece low ridges rise and run down 

 the foot and into the heel, and a lofty ridge runs northwards up 

 the leg. Except in the immediate vicinity of the pond where trees 

 are open and the pandanus dense ; every other part of the in- 

 terior that I explored was thickly covered with huge forest trees, 

 in the shade of which grew a vast variety of those strange 

 Aveird, antediluvian looking tropical forms, that I had so admired 

 and wondered at in Macpherson's Straits, but here even in greater 

 luxuriance. But I bad little time to notice these things, the 

 island swarmed with birds. There were eight guns on it, 

 almost all breech-loaders, and the rattle of a strong company 

 file-firing is a joke to the row we made. First and foremost the 

 trees were alive with the Blyth's Imperial Pigeon ( C. insularis) 

 who came in parties of from 3 to 10 to see what the fun was 

 the moment you fired a gun. The island is uninhabited, and 

 though Burmans, Malays, and Nicobarese, come occasionally to 

 collect cocoanuts, very few Europeans have ever previously 

 visited it, and guns and white faces are things heretofore practi- 

 cally unknown to its feathered inhabitants. These magnificent 

 Pigeons were so tempting, they gave such splendid flying shots 

 through the trees, and even if you missed them the shot at once 

 attracted half a dozen others who calmly perched high over 

 head, looked down inquisitively to ascertain how you made 

 that jolly row ! Then there were Black-naped Azure Flycatchers 

 (M. azurea) and Nicobar Bulbuls (H. nieobariensis) the latter, 

 the first most of us had ever seen of the species and highly 

 desirable as specimens. The Nicobar Paroquet (P. erythrogenys) ? 

 beautiful Bronze-winged Doves (C. indicus), Blyth's White-collar- 

 ed Kingfisher (H. occipitalis), the first glimpse of which satisfied 

 me that it was a good and distinct species, and of which there 

 being great numbers, we secured a stock, and lastly the 

 Nicobar White-eyed Tit (Z. nieobariensis) , were also all common. 

 About the pond we shot the Chestnut Bittern (A. cin- 

 namomea), the Yellow Bittern (A. sinensis), and greatest prize 

 of all the Malayan Tiger Bittern (Goisakms melanolophus). 

 Here too we picked up several White-breasted Water-hens (P. 

 phcenicura) and saw, but failed to secure, a large handsome 

 banded Rail. Two or three of the party also saw single Nico- 

 bar Pigeons (Calcenas nicobaricus) , and as I was ferreting 

 about the jungle on the hill slopes, I came upon what I took to 



