116 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



His sufferings, as any one might guess, were long and pro- 

 tracted ; bis recovery tardy, and when able to leave hospital, 

 he was pronounced unfit for future service afloat. The Govern- 

 ment, however, gave him at once the berth of a light-house- 

 keeper, and here, as at sea, he has proved himself a faithful ser- 

 vant. We took him quite by surprise, he had no expectation 

 of a visit for another month, but we found his whole light-house, 

 from roof to floor, in the most perfect state of brilliant cleanli- 

 ness, not a speck of dust to be found anywhere, and brass and 

 glass almost supernaturally bright. I am happy to say that 

 though still limping he is now able to run up and down the seven 

 floors of his iron light-house as well as the best of us. 



While we were at Table Island, others of the party had 

 explored nearly the whole of the Great Coco. They got no birds 

 that we had not shot or seen, but they found a pair of Esacus 

 magnirostris by themselves on a sandy spit, one of which 

 seemed unwilling to leave the spot; they secured it and just 

 where (it proved to be the female) she had first been standing, 

 they found in a tiny depression in the sand, only a few yards 

 from high water-mark, a huge egg, exactly similar to those of 

 Esacus Tecurvirostris, of which I have taken some scores, but a 

 good deal larger. . 



I should add that when we visited the Great Coco not a drop 

 of fresh water was to be found anywhere, though a systematic 

 search was made for this all over the island. Other visitors have 

 talked of a tank 200 feet long and 50 feet broad, but none 

 such exists at the present time during the dry season. Nay, more 

 in one of the lowest hollows, where I made the men scoop away 

 the humus and sand for some three feet until they came to hard 

 ground, which was either sandstone or indurated sand, only the 

 faintest possible trace of moisture was observable and not one 

 drop of water was obtained. On Table Island wells have been 

 dug with a similar result, and all the water there used is 

 collected from the roofs during the monsoons and stored in 

 huge iron tanks. It is quite certain that in these islands the 

 natural local supply cannot be depended on. Immediately after 

 the rains, pools and ponds doubtless exist, furnishing, I should 

 apprehend, a terribly insalubrious supply, and in some years, 

 this may last later* than in others, but no one should ever count 

 on being able to get any drinkable water anywhere in this 

 group except from the light house-keeper's tanks. 



* In April 1849 one of these pools still contained water, and it is to the drinking 

 of this I attribute the fact, that of a party of colonists, consisting of three Europeans, 

 one East Indian, and eight Burmese who at that time tried to effect A settlement on 

 Great Coco, seven died offerer in a very short time, the rest abandoning the enterprise 

 the moment a passing ship enabled them to escape. 



