THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 437 
few screw pines, the only noticeable point was that almost 
along the entire lagoon face of the island, adense hedge of the 
glossy-leaved white-flowered Sceevola is allowed to grow just 
above spring-tide high water mark. 
A few useful plants and trees have been introduced, such as 
the Bread fruit, the Papaia, the Horse Radish tree (Moringa 
pterygosperma) Plantains, Lime trees, and Castor oil plants, but 
there are very few of these, and the Islanders, a very happy-go- 
lucky race it must be admitted, seem to set but small store by 
them. 
The way they spoke of the Bread fruit was amusing ; their 
main conception of what was useful in the vegetable world, 
having been based on the cocoanut palm, which, in these islands 
and other suitable localities, yields its ripe fruit, week after week 
throughout the whole year, they regard trees that fruit once in 
the year and have done with it, as feeble and unsatisfactory 
freaks of nature. The Bread fruit was all very well they said, but 
what was the use of their multiplying them? They all bore 
fruit at the same time, the fruiting season lasted at most two 
months, and then for the rest of the year there was no yield. 
A poor sort of tree truly! However, it must be admitted that 
these islands are rather out of the Bread fruit’s natural 
habitat, and that the tree probably hardly does itself justice 
here. 
As to birds, I worked the island thoroughly, and the only 
really indigenous bird appeared to be the White-eyed Tit 
(Zosterops palpebrosa) which was common. There were a few 
Koils (Ludynanys honorata), but these the people said were only 
seasonal visitors, and as the Tit is the only bird that makes a nest 
in the island, and as the Koils could hardly lay in such a nest, 
I can quite believe that this is the case. There were several 
pairs of Kestrels, which the people also said only visited them 
during the autumn and cooler season. No Crows, no other land 
birds, except a pair of Owls which we were informed had made 
their way to the islands from Betra-par, and which being 
Government protegés, we of course respected, although the 
people wanted them shot, as they made they said horrible 
noises at night. There were several Mongooses about, and we 
shot one which proved to be a Stripe-neck. A Falcon, apparent- 
ly a Peregrine at times visits the island, but none had been 
seen there for a month or so previous to our arrival. 
On the shore we saw and shot a single Whimbrel, also one 
out of a tiny flock of large Shore Plovers (4. Geoffroyi), 
and a couple of common Sand Pipers (7. hypoleucos). There 
were positively no other birds on or about the islands. No 
Gulls, Terns or other sea birds of any kind. 
