THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 457 
ground, and each day we found ourselves back exactly abreast of 
the square mark that indicates the extreme southern point of 
Hindostan. All this while the weather varied, now it rained, 
now the sun shone, now it was dead smooth, now there was a 
little sea ; one thing only never varied, and that was the direc- 
tion of the wind, which much or little was always dead ahead! 
All this time no single Gull or Tern or Bo’sun ever came 
within sight, and a drearier time than we had of it (and it was 
horribly hot withal) could scarcely be imagined. 
At last we made Tuticorin, and I had had enough of the old 
“Clyde,” to which I here bade farewell, devoting the rest of my 
leave to Southern India, the Pulneys, and Neilgherries, of which 
I need say nothing here. 
After I left, Dr. Armstrong went on with the “ Clyde” to 
Paunben and spent some days about Ramesuram Island, which 
forms the Indian end, as Manaar does the Cingalese end, of 
Adam’s Bridge. Though chiefly occupied with marine zoology, 
his own especial branch, Dr. Armstrong very kindly collected 
several birds for me on this island, and, as so far as I am aware, 
no specimens have hitherto been recorded from this locality, I 
think it may be useful to give a list of what he procured, im- 
perfectly as this must necessarily represent the local avi-fauna. 
The island he’tells me is about eight or ten miles long, every 
where very low and sandy, and mostly covered with a low thin 
tree jungle. We might have expected this to be a paradise of 
sea birds, and doubtless at one time it may have been so, but 
it is now the highway along which passes and repasses the 
mighty stream of emigration that goes on continually between 
Southern India and “ Ceylon,” and Dr. Armstrong did not ob- 
serve a single Gull or Tern about the place when he was there in 
the middle of March. 
List of specimens procured at Ramesuram Island. 
17.—Tinnunculus alaudarius, Briss. 
76.—Athene brama, Tem. 
The specimens are rather small and dark, and rather finely 
spotted, recalling, as do likewise some of the Anjango specimens, 
the A. pulchra of Pegu. 
181.—Brachypternus puncticollis, Ma/h. 
A thoroughly typical example ; the throat only marked with 
small circular spots. 
212.—Coccystes jacobinus, Bodd. 
