THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 1S3 



They feed largely on the papaya (Carica papaya) and on the 

 ripe pandanns fruit, and I have seen them eating the ripe outer 

 covering of the betel-nut (Areca catechu), which is so very 

 abundant on some of the Nicobar Islands ; but this is evidently 

 not a favorite food with them, and they apparently never touch 

 it when they can obtain better food, as on Camorta. They are 

 easily reared in captivity even when taken from the nest very 

 young. One of my men reared successfully two young ones 

 which I took from a nest in Trinkut Island, although one was so 

 young that it had both its eyes closed, and had not a trace of 

 feathers on it beyond a few stumps on its tail and along the 

 wings. The way he managed it was this, — he got a small whelk 

 shell, and inserted the narrow end between the mandibles of the 

 bird, so as to form a small channel into its mouth, and down 

 this he used to pour small quantities of milk ; this he continued 

 to do till the bird could take more substantial food, and he then 

 fed it on bread and milk, or boiled rice and milk, and for this it- 

 would readily open its mouth ; it very soon learned to feed 

 itself. I have often seen this bird in the houses of the Nicobar- 

 ese fastened to a perch made of cane, by a ring of cocoanut 

 shell. I may here mention that the Nicobarese appear rather 

 fond of keeping birds. I have seen them with Carpopliaga in- 

 sularis, C. bicolor, Macropygia rujvpennis, and Eudynamys mala- 

 yana, and on Kondul Island we got five specimens alive of P. 

 caniceps ; these birds, with the exception of the paroquets, are 

 usually kept in baskets made of cane, or rough cages of wood, 

 and are suspended outside the houses in company with sundry 

 little pigs, also in cages ; strange as it may appear, the Nico- 

 barese usually keep their poultry in pens, and the little pigs in 

 cages suspended as above mentioned. 



" On the 17th of February, I found on the island of Trinkut, 

 Nicobars, a nest of this species in a hole in a branch of a 

 screw pine (Pandanus) about 12 feet from the ground; the 

 nest contained two young birds, one well covered with feathers, 

 the other a tiny little thing with its eyes closed, and without 

 a trace of a feather. There was no lining to the hole, beyond 

 a little powder from the decayed wood. Again, on the 2nd of 

 March, I found a nest on the island of Trinkut, situated about 30 

 feet from the ground, in a hole of a branch of a large forest tree ; 

 this nest contained two very young birds. On the 1 7th of April 

 at Port Mouat, Andamans, I saw a female P. ajffinis feeding two 

 young ones that were sitting on the edge of a hole in an old 

 dry mangrove stump, about 12 feet high. As I did not 

 require the birds I did not climb up to the nest, and so could 



