Zoology of the Andaman Islands. 



6741 



golin, as a fish ! " Shell-fish " are more than once mentioned in the 

 Report, meaning alike crustaceans and shelled mollusks ; and we read 

 also of the coral " insect." " The only mammal whose existence we 

 ascertained was the pig, their skulls being found suspended in the 

 huts of the savages." The pig, as before remarked, naturally elicits 

 the question, What sort of pig ? — it. being not even mentioned whether 

 wild or tame ! But, being wild, it surely merited an inquiry regarding 

 its particular species. In like manner we read of" the bamboo, the 

 rattan, and the cane." The last, we apprehend, must mean some 

 kind of rattan {Calamus) ; but, the precise species not being identi- 

 fied (so far as appears), would it not have been better to have em- 

 ployed the expression " a species of," or " species of bamboo and of 

 rattan " ? A Frenchman or a German would have been far more 

 explicit in his statements ; and the reader, desirous of accurate infor- 

 mation, is disappointed at such want of precision. 



The only additional mammal as yet determined from the Anda- 

 mans is the dugong (Halicore indicus), a marine creature, one of the 

 Syrenia, or Cetacea herbivora of Cuvier, some bones of which (now 

 in the Asiatic Society's museum) have been obtained from an Anda- 

 manese hut ; and this is the most northern locality in which we as 

 yet know of its occurrence. 



Rats, however, there certainly are, and their burrows have been 

 remarked by recent observers ; but rats of some kind are not of recent 

 introduction. The writer in the 4 Calcutta Monthly Register' (1790) 

 mentions " wild hogs and rats (the only animals that were perceived 

 in that country ;" and Lieutenant Colebrooke notices monkeys in 

 addition, a statement which greatly needs confirmation. We are 

 credibly informed, however, of the loris (or so-called " sloth" of Euro- 

 peans, " little Bradypus " of Heifer!) having been observed on the 

 island of Preparis, situate to the north of the Andamans in a line with 

 Cape Negrais. Bats may of course be looked for, probably a shrew 

 or two, perhaps a Tupaia, and squirrels and flying squirrels ; but, 

 unless bats, not any of the rest would appear to have been hitherto 

 remarked at Port Blair. Even the alleged rat may not improbably 

 turn out to be a species of Rhizomys, or bamboo rat. * 



* Since writing the above we have taken a mouse from the stomach of a venom- 

 ous snake from Port Blair, the Trigonocephaly Cautori (heretofore only known from 

 the Nicobars). So far as it can be made out the mouse is the M. Manei, which is the 

 common house mouse of India. Another mammal since reported, seemingly a Tupaia. 

 In an extract from a letter from Port Blair, dated June 22, and published in the 

 * Delhi Gazette ' for July 15, it is stated that " the settlers had caught another small 



