84 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



shot a Turnstone ( C. interpres) and a Blue Reef-heron, while 

 several of these latter, of HorsfieloV Swiffclet, the Nicobar Oriole, 

 the Black-naped Azure Flycatcher, and the Nicobar Collared 

 Kingfisher, were brought to book by others. My back had been 

 for some days specially painful, and I could crawl about but 

 little, but sitting on a sandy reach of the shore, both Pallas' and 

 the Large Sand-plover {/E. mongolicus et Geoffroyi) disturbed 

 by others of the party, who also secured specimens, came and 

 offered me good easy shots of which I cheerfully availed myself. 

 We saw a Harrier-eagle, it passed close to me, and was, I 

 consider, undoubtedly Davisoni. Why I stared, instead of 

 firing, at it, I cannot pretend to say. 



Early on the 15th we came on to Treis and Track, two little 

 densely-wooded, and in places rather precipitous, islands, scarcely 

 I should guess more than a quarter of a mile apart. 



On Treis, where a landing w T as first effected, several enormous 

 fig trees resembling, but not I think identical with our Indian 

 Banyan, were found which teemed to an incredible degree 

 with frugiverous birds. The Pied Fruit-pigeon (C. bicolor) 

 and Blyth's Imperial Pigeon (C. insular is) were in such 

 extraordinary numbers, and so tame, that after the first general 

 fusilade, in which fifty of the former and a somewhat smaller 

 number of the latter were bagged, every one turned their 

 attention to other species, and some of the party went off to 

 Track, where, by the way, these same pigeons were almost as 

 plentiful. 



For the first time we succeeded in securing two specimens, 

 an adult and a young bird, of the White-bellied Sea-eagle 

 (C. leucog aster), which though daily and hourly seen through- 

 out these islands, is most difficult to procure. We also shot 

 several Megapods, and ought to have secured many more. A 

 pair of the splendid Nicobar Pigeon, the Pectoral Sunbird, 

 Nicobar Paroquet, Oriole, and Collared Kingfisher, the Bronze- 

 winged Dove, Blyth's Cuckoo-dove, the Black-naped Azure Fly- 

 catcher, and sundry Reef-herons. We saw but did hot succeed 

 in shooting a Bush-thrush ( G. albogularis) , a Cuckoo and a 

 Koel. 



In the afternoon we came on to Meroe. I was absolutely crip- 

 pled and laid on a couch, and did not attempt to land, but two. 

 boats went off (we laid about a mile off land) , and from time to 

 time we heard a shot from different parts of the island showing 

 that the parties had separated. About an hour before sunset 

 one of the boats was seen putting off, the wind was dead aft 

 and the}- were soon alongside. The return party, which con-? 



