130 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



the whole of these islands form a chain stretching from Cape 

 Neorais to Acheen Head, with nowhere a break of more than 80 

 miles, and this only between Cape Negrais and Preparis, and 

 again between Little Andaman and Car Nicobar. Yet 

 the Cocos, only 40 miles north of the Great Andaman, have a 

 species peculiar to themselves, and only five of the forty- 

 three peculiar species, that I at present admit, are, as far as 

 we yet know, common to the Andamans and Cocos. The former 

 present 17 species, strictly confined within their own limits, the 

 Nicobars ten, while of the 43 species only nine are common to 

 both these groups. 



Still more remarkable are the details. The Andaman 

 Myiagra, which, as a rule, is a very distinct and well-marked 

 form, is replaced in the Nicobars, by one which, though not 

 precisely identical with the Indian form, is far more closely 

 allied to this latter than to the Andaman Tytleri. Halcyon 

 clitoris is common from the Soonderbuns right down to Rutland 

 Island, and again at Acheen in Sumatra, but it is absolutely 

 wanting in every island of the Nicobars, where it is replaced by 

 H. occipitalis, a well-marked species entirely restricted to this 

 latter group. Each group has its own distinct — Harrier-eagle, 

 Bed-cheeked Paroquet, Oriole, Sun-bird, and Bulbul. Merops 

 Laudini has not been met with in the Andamans, nor M. 

 Swinhoei in the Nicobars. Two Woodpeckers are peculiar to, 

 and common enough throughout, the Andaman group, but neither 

 of them extend to either the Cocos or the Nicobars. Even where 

 the differences may not be considered specific, and where I 

 record the species as common to both groups, each group will 

 often be found to possess a race of its own. Thus the Disse- 

 murus of the Andamans differs in certain particulars from that 

 of the Nicobars, and the same is the case with the Osmotreron, 

 the Munia, and others, as will be pointed out in detail when 

 dealing with the several species separately. 



Turning now to species, which, according to my views, un- 

 doubtedly occur elsewhere outside the islands, we find that 

 there are 112 of these; of which 31 are western, for the most 

 part the inevitable plovers, snipes, sandpipers, stints and herons, 

 which, in a case like the present, may be neglected as affording 

 no clue to the affinities of the fauna. Out of the remaining 81, 

 40 may be classed as Indian, as occurring for the most 

 part either pretty well throughout the Indian region proper in 

 suitable localities, or along the Indian coasts generally, though 

 in the case of the majority also extending eastwards. Two 

 are Southern Indian, 17 belong to what I call the Indo- 



