460 THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 
to allow the re-emergence of those now represented by the 
great banks of Padrio, &c. Probably the subsidence was 
greatest to the north, and not improbably it was connected with 
the volcanic agency which we know to have been in operation 
scarcely more than half a century ago in the Runn of Cutch, 
which is due north of the group. 
And now for our scanty list of birds. One feature, in which, 
viz. its non-inclusion of a single Gull, deserves prominent 
notice. 
Never did we even catch sight of one of these birds any- 
where in or about the group. Up to this moment, so far-as I 
can learn, no Gull has ever been seen or shot anywhere in or 
about the Andamans or Nicobars ; certainly we never saw one. 
Priméd facie one might have expected all these oceanic groups 
to have abounded with Gulls; as a fact, as far.as I know, no 
Gull ever visits them, except perhaps when blown out thither 
from inhabited coasts in a cyclone. 
The explanation seems to be that, while the Terns are the 
Hawks and Falcons of the ocean, the Gulls play at sea the 
part of the Kites on land. It is where offal abounds, the deje- 
ta of crowded human life or extensive fisheries, that the Gulls, 
when not intent on breeding purposes, love to dwell. In the 
fish market at Kurrachee, at Muscat, Guader, Cochin, the 
Chilka, the mouths of the Hooghli and the Ganges, they swarm 
during the non-breeding season, but the pure seas of the thin- 
ly-populated groups referred to are as much out of their line as 
ices and wafers at Gunter’s are out of that of the ordinary 
London Scavenger. 
List of species observed at the Laccadives. 
8.—Falco peregrinus, Gmel. 
The Peregrine appears to be a tolerably common visitant to 
the islands. We saw it at Amini, Bingaroo (of Aucuttee) and 
Cowrattee, and heard of its occasional appearence at Kiltan. 
Tt does not, however, breed in the islands, nor does it seem to visit 
them at any one particular season. It is seen at all periods of 
the year, even during the monsoon; sometimes a single bird 
and sometimes a pair make their appearance, and remain some- 
times only a single day, sometimes for months ; so at least say 
the natives who know the bird well. 
17.—Cerchneis alaudarius, Briss. 
The Kestrel is the commonest Raptor at the Laccadives during 
the cold season. We shot it at Betra-Par, Kiltan, Cardamum, 
