176 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [June, 



mode of killing captured fish is to bite through the vertebral column 

 just behind the head, but some of the sea fishes they first exer- 

 cise the younger children upon. The fish is thrown into the sea, 

 and of course darts away, the boys and girls dash in after and re- 

 capture it. Sometimes they will do this, especially with the Ten- 

 th id idee, several successive times. To a stranger it at first appears 

 very improbable that they will recapture it, but I never saw them 

 lose one. 



As we were preparing to leave, the Andamanese having asserted 

 that they had obtained as much as they could carry and sufficient for 

 food, one of the girls brought a specimen of the pretty yellow and 

 white banded Amphiprion pcrcida, Lacep., and on being told that it 

 was good, observed she could get numbers more. She took us to a sea 

 nettle, Actinia, which she detached from the coral rock, by inserting 

 her hand behind the attachment of this polype, and on shaking it 

 into the hand, two more of these little fishes came out. Subsequent- 

 ly this was repeated to twelve others, and all had two living fish 

 inside them, except one which had three. They asserted that this was 

 their usual abode. A few days previously, Captain Hamilton 

 had observed to me that some little striped fish lived inside a polype 

 at North bay. One day he dug one out, dragged it to the shore 

 and captured three little fish from its interior, replacing them in 

 the sea they appeared not to know what to do, swimming round 

 and round as if looking for something. The living polype was now 

 returned to the sea and they at once swam to it, following it as it 

 was dragged back again through the water to its original locality. 

 As I was going over to North bay fishing, he came with me to see if 

 he could not find a specimen, unfortunately after discovering one 

 and obtaining a fish from it, Amphiprion bifasciatum, BL, he got 

 stung by the polype, consequently I did not see it, but I have the 

 fish. At Gopaulpore, I found living specimens of Therapons inside 

 Medusce, which the fishermen asserted to be common. 



On returning towards our boat, a largo number of esculent swal- 

 lows were observed soaring about, some of them darting in, others 

 coming out, of a low cave. We sent in some of the Andamanese to 

 look for nests, and they brought us two old ones, observing the 

 season was too late, whilst the convicts had cleared it a few months 



