THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 149 



than Elgini. Its habits were precisely those of its more common 

 congener. 



39 sextus.— Spilornis minimus, Hume. (2.) 



I have already described this species, Stray Feathers, 1873, 

 p. 464, and I have nothing now to add to what I then stated. 



41. — Polioaetus ichthyaetus, Horsf. (0.) 



The occurrence of this species at the Andamans is excessively 

 doubtful. No specimen has ever been shot there, and no one has 

 ever positively asserted that they even saw it. Colonel Ty tier only 

 remarks : — u A fine sea-eagle flew over my house on the 2nd July, 

 evidently a stranger, from the numbers of crows that followed 

 it. I examined him with a glass, but he was too far, and high 

 up to judge accurately." I cannot include this species on 

 evidence of this nature. 



43.— Cuncuma leucogaster, Gmel. (3). 



This bird, though not uncommon at the Andamans and. 

 Nicobars, is exceedingly difficult to procure ; it is very wary, and. 

 hardly ever affords the chance of a shot, and even when this 

 is afforded it is only a long snap shot. When seen, the bird is 

 invariably, either sailing far out at sea, or high above the forest, 

 always well out of range, and even when it does settle, or fly 

 low, it is so wary that on the least attempt to approach it, it 

 immediately soars away. It probably feeds chiefly on fish, 

 but I have been informed that it also carries off chickens, &c. 

 It keeps on the sea coast, and prefers, as far as I have observed, 

 to perch on trees or shrubs in preference to rocks. Davison 

 remarks : — 



" I found the nest of this bird on Nancowry Island on the 

 8th March ; it was a huge mass of sticks placed between two 

 great branches of a large tree, at an height of about 80 feet 

 from the ground ; the tree grew on the edge of a small land- 

 slip about 200 yards from the shore, it must have had eggs as 

 the bird was sitting, but I failed to obtain them. I could not 

 climb the tree m}-self, and I could get no assistance from the 

 Nicobarese, they would not go near the nest, and when I said 

 I would have it taken without their assistance, they 

 earnestly begged me not to touch it, as doing so would be sure 

 to bring fever into the village, and they would all die. I left 

 Camorta on the 10th before I could make arrangements to have 

 the nest taken, and when I did return I only stayed a few hours 

 in the harbour." 



