A SURVEY SEASON IN THE NICOBAR ISLANDS. 
979 > 
five or six men would gradually surround the herd, quietly working their way 
closer and closer without disturbing the animals. Eventually the herd would 
take fright and bolt, but with a wild final rush the men would usually manage to- 
secure the young calf. This was then tethered to a stake on the spot and left 
there. After a time the mother cow would return to feed the calf and each day 
the little animal was moved nearer to the convict camp. E%'entually the cow 
was thus lured into the camp and submitted to being milked. 
As a natural corollary to the presence of a herd of cattle the grass-land was 
swarming with ticks, but the numbers present seem to show a distinct seasonal 
variation. During the wet months, November-January, each time our dogs 
were taken for a run on shore they came back infested with dozens of these 
parasites, but as soon as the comparatively dry weather set in, about the middle 
of February, there was a marked diminution in their numbers. 
One’s first impression of the famia of these islands is that of comparative pau- 
city. In addition to the wild cattle there are also numbers of wild i>ig, and Miller^ 
on the evidence of the skin and skull of a yoimg adult male and the skull of 
another older male, has created the species Sus nicoharicus. According to Abbot, 
whom MiUer quotes, this wild pig of Great Nicobar is different from the domes- 
tic one and is smaller in size ; but one should keep in mind that the natives of 
these islands only keep the sows. Any boars in a litter are turned adrift into the 
jimgle where they fend for themselves. The sows on the other hand are carefully 
tended and fed daily and one would naturally expect them to attain to a greater 
size than the wild examples. Moreover all the sows are fertilized by wild boars 
and it is difficult to see how two true species could be maintained under these 
conditions. Certainly during my wanderings on Camorta or Nankauri all the 
wild pig seen by me appeared to be uniform in character with the domestic ones. 
The only other land mammal kno-wn from these islands is the rat. Thanks to 
“Sammy” — the Captain’s dog — managed to obtain a specimen from Camorta, 
A second example was seen, but, though Sammy again did his best, we failed to 
secure it. Both these rats were living on the grassy uplands at the back of the 
old settlement site. The government agent, Mewa Lai, told me that large rats 
used frequently to come donm to the jetty near his bungalow at night to feed 
on the shore crabs. I neither saw any myself nor succeeded in procuring a spe- 
cimen, but the agent’s story was corroborated by our own Tide-watchers, who 
were living on the jetty, and according to their accomit the rats were large and 
in size resembled a bandicoot ; possibly they were examples of the shrew,. 
Crocidura nicobarica, Miller, a species obtained by Abbott and Boden Kloss from 
Great Nicobar. The only other mammal seen in the neighbourhood of these 
islands was a small bat — ^probably Miniopterus pusillus, Dobson. Every evening 
at sun -down during the later months of the year numbers of these little creatures 
could be seen flying across Nankauri Harbour from the south-west towards 
Camorta. During January and February the numbers of these bats that were 
seen showed a marked diminution. Possibly during these months they mig- 
rate elsewhere or it may be that their evening flight occurred later in the day and 
so was not noticed. I managed to secure a couple of examples, though I hesitate 
to say how many cartridges were vainly expended by myself and my shipmates 
before we were at last successful ! One of the Forest Officers of the Andamans, 
Mr. Bonnington, who spent some months in this neighbourhood studying the 
flora, tells me that these bats live in limestone caves in Kaehal Island and 
nightly cross over Revello Channel and Nankauri Harbour to Camorta. The 
presence of these bats in the caves on Kaehal has been recorded on several occa- 
sions. Thus Anderson writing in 1901 remarks. “ The bats (Miniopterus 
schreibersi), which Ball noticed in this cave thirty years ago, are still there in 
1! G. S. Miller .In., “ The mammals of the Andamans and Nicobar Islands,” Proc-. 
U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 24, p. 755, Washington, 1902. 
