THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 413 
and in some the black is highly developed, thus the Northern 
Indian type appears to be distinct, while the Southern Indian 
type re-appears in the Malayan peninsular. 
The most remarkable variation of all is the prevalence of 
yellow on the back in all the specimens from Central India. 
The Haccadives and the Gest Const. 
Ir had for years been the cherished dream of my existence (to 
quote the words of an illustrious visitor to India), to visit and 
explore those little known reefs and Islands, the Laccadives. 
Perhaps I hoped to find there a fauna and flora exhibiting 
affinities with those of Madagascar and the Seychelles, Mauri- 
tius, and Reunion, and to unearth some evidence confirmatory 
of the hypothesis that the Atolls of the Laccadives, the Maldives, 
and the Chagos mark the mountain crests of a long submerged 
land, of which Madagascar and the neighbouring Islands once 
formed parts. 
Certainly (I fear me on the barbarian’s principle of holding 
omne ignoto pro magnifico) I expected important results from 
a trip to the Laccadives, and great was my delight at finding 
myself during the last days of January 1875 in Bombay, with 
a cruise along the west coast and a trip to these islands arranged 
for me. 
The “Clyde,” an old gun-boat, had been fitted out, after a 
fashion, for use by the new Indian Marine Survey, and as she 
had to come round to Calcutta, and as several of the Lacca- 
dives were supposed to be anything but accurately placed in 
the charts, it was determined that on her way to Cape Comorin 
she should run through the Laccadives and fix accurately the 
positions of as many as possible of the reefs. 
The “ Clyde” had been declared ready for sea a week previously 
by the dockyard authorities. JI had been telegraphed for from 
Calcutta to come at once if I meant to go at all, yet more than 
a week elapsed after my arrival before it was possible to make 
a start. 
During the interim I knocked about the harbour and islands 
a good deal. 
In the most crowded portions of the harbour and about the 
rocks immediately below the old fort’s low battlements, Larus 
brunneicephalus (associated with a much smaller number of ZL. 
vidibundus) abounds. They sit about on the water during 
the greater part of the day, not condescending to move for 
