VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AXD MALACCA. 115 



in the tail fins. It was prickly all over, blue with black spots. 



A mousecoloured swallow, with very long" wings came to 

 the ship towards evening', and I caught it alive after dark. In 

 flying it resembled a hawk, as it remained a long time in the air 

 without moving its wings. In colour, size and cry it resembled a 

 bat. 



19. — We had cast anchor for the night and in the morning 

 we had a weak wind and passed many islands, which lie near 

 Concas. The first of these were low and small, then there were 

 some small hilly ones, but the larger islands were traversed by 

 cigher mountains, formmg' a long ridge ; they generally rose 

 bradually in the north-west, were highest in the north-east, and 

 game to an end quite abruptly ; they were surrounded by a dark 

 hlue atmosphere, and were overgrown with trees. The sea-water 

 was not as clear here, but seemed greyish-black when one looked 

 down. 



The swallow, which was caught yesterday had a short bill, 

 the upper part of which was a little longer and slightly curved at 

 the end. The nostrils were projecting and had a round edg'e ; 

 the neck was short, the eyes were large, projecting and black ; 

 the eyelids were naked, only at the edge they had a single row of 

 small short feathers. The wings were extraordinarily long-, 

 longer than the tail, and the feathers at their end were curved in a 

 sword-shape, and were very narrow. The wing had eighteen 

 long feathers, the latter ones being wider and finishing in a slant. 



There were ten tail-feathers of almost equal leng'th, the 

 middle ones being- only slightly shorter, the ends of these feath- 

 ers are broad and rounded. The whole tail had scarcely the 

 length of the body. The feet are short and black, the toes as 

 long as the first joint of the foot. The whole body, as I said 

 before, had everywhere the colour of a bat. I stuffed the bird 

 to keep it. We were to-day a little over ten degrees X . Latitude. 



20. As we were so near the land, we cast anchor again for 

 the night, but we hoisted it ere daybreak. AVe had fine weather 

 to-day and I saw a great quantity of the phosphorescent Scyll^e 

 swimming in the sea, but could not catch a single one, because 

 they were at three feet depth, some even at fuur to six feet. My 

 Tritons and the Medusa I described near Malacca, (the one with 

 the eight red stripes, each red stripe consisting of two rows of 

 red spots ending' in a sort of tube) were frequently passing- our 



