120 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



(Ardetta cinnamomea) and from another a Green one (Butorides 

 javanica), so that the swamps had probably only recently 

 dried up. The inevitable White-bellied Sea-eagles, so invariably 

 seen, so seldom shot, soared about high in air. Od the shore 

 the Golden-plover (Charadrius fulvus), the Grey-curlew, the 

 Whimbrel, the Turnstone, Pallas' Sand-plover (2E. mongolicus), 

 the Common Sandpiper and Blue and White Reef-herons; 

 ■were more than customarily numerous. 



I soon got tired of the jungle where nothing worth having 

 was to be seen, and which was so thick and thorny below that 

 it kept off every breath of air, at the same time that it greatly 

 imperilled the safety of every square inch of skin (I say nothing 

 of clothes, for they were all in rags by this time), and so thin 

 above that it offered no protection from the blazing sun, and so 

 I betook myself with my faithful comrade D. to the broad, and 

 now nearly bare, reefs. 



Here I wandered about feasting my eyes upon the won^ 

 drously colored living corals, some a delicate pink, each branch- 

 let tipped with crimson, some olive green tipped with the 

 brightest smalt blue, some mingled purple and orange, or orange 

 and a green so deep as to be all but black, various in shape 

 and size as in tint, and intermingled with softly tinted jellies, 

 and living sea flowers, whose hues rivalled those of earth's 

 brightest gardens. Then towards the edge of the reef I 

 watched the still green depths where far down between 

 coral walls little shoals of fishes flashed out here, there, 

 everywhere, sudden and many tinted as the diamond's rays, or 

 else hung motionless, more like fragments of a shattered rainbow 

 than anything else, till some great crimson fellow, all speckled 

 like the breast of a Tragopan, would dash into the cleft and 

 dissolve the kaleidescope-like group. In the pools great tiger 

 shells, whose furry mantles shrunk at the slightest touch, baring 

 the polished spotted shell below, sidled along awkwardly and 

 huge lampreys a yard or more in length, pale yellow, powdered 

 over with lilac in strange dendritic patterns, half in and half 

 out of their burrows, rapidly and regularly, alternately 

 extended and contracted their waving supple snaky forms. 



Presently I heard a shout from D., " turtle, turtle/'' and looking 

 up I saw him dashing about in a deepish pool, every moment 

 plunging down until he was almost out of sight. In a weak moment 

 of enthusiasm I put my gun down on a dry block of coral 

 and ran towards him. Just as I reached the edge of the pool 

 he emerged with a turtle weighing about 401bs. He was in the 

 highest state of excitement, " come on" he said te > there are half 



