98-2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
Nicobar Imperial Pigeon, and keeping much more to the low-lying parts of the 
jungle and the mangrove swamps, are small flocks of the Pied Imperial Pigeon,. 
Myrislicivora bicolor (Scop.) : while the Nicobar Pigeon, Calcenas nicobaricor 
(Linn.) ,was comparative rare. The distribution of these different species seems 
to be to a certain extent local : for instance the Imperial Pigeon were common 
on Nankauri Island but were comparatively rare on the south-east comer of 
Camorta, though their numbers increased as one went northward towards the 
head of Grand Harbom ; and the Pied Imperial Pigeon were comparatively rare 
on Nankauri Island and roimd the site of the old settlement on Camorta but 
were very common further north round the entrance to Expedition Harbour. 
From time to time floeks of the Andamanese Green Pigeon, Osynotreron 
pompadora chloroptera (Blyth), were seen feeding on certain trees in the jun- 
gle. The Andaman Cockoo-Dove, Macropigia rufipennis (Blyth), was by no- 
means rare. In the Andamans the flesh of this bird is said to have a 
peculiar and somewhat pungent flavour that renders it unsatisfactory 
as an article of diet, but our experience in the Nicobars was the 
exact opposite. The presence of this bird in the bag was always 
welcomed, as we found it extremely pleasant to eat with a flavour 
distinctly superior to that of the larger Pigeon. A few examples of the Bronze- 
Winged Dove, Chalcophaps indica (Linn.), were from time to time seen in the 
jungle or flying across a bit of open ground from one patch of forest to another. 
Another common denizen of the jungle and the trees romid the old settlement 
site is the Indian Koel, Eudynamis honorata (Lum.), Green Parrots of more than 
one species frequented the tree tops, and on one occasion a pair of the Malay 
Bittern, Gorsachius rmlanolophm (Raffles), rvere seen in a small patch of jungle 
near the little artificial lake above the old settlement site on Camorta. 
The bird that we were all anxious to see was, of course, the Megapod, Mega, 
podius nicobariensis, Blyth, but in this locality it proved to be comparatively rare. 
A couple of Megapod momrds were foimd in the jungle only a few yards from 
the beach near one of the villages ; one of these mounds was imdoubtedl 3 ' fresh 
but the other was an old disused one. I caught a glimpse of one of these birds 
on the edge of a brackish swamp, thickly overgrorvn with Nipa fruticans^ 
irear Reed Point, but that was the only occasion orr which I actually saw a specimen 
alive. Two examples were brought in, havmg been killed by the natives, and 
were in due course cooked and sampled ; but we came to the conclusion that 
Blanford* who states that “ these birds are delicious eating” must have been 
prejudiced. The occurrence of the Megapod on these islands is one of the pro- 
blems that zoologists have hitherto failed to solve, and they have therefore 
fallen back on the assumption that it has been imported by Malay's ; 
but this assumption breaks down in the face of the occurrence of the bird 
in the Cocos Islands to the north of the Andamans. It is generally 
stated that the Megapod is absent from the Andamans, but I have 
seen in Little Andaman, in a patch of open jungle a hundred yards 
or so from the beach and the same distance from a mangrove creek, a 
large momid of earth and leaves about four feet high and ten feet in diameter, 
exactly similar to the moimds I saw in Nankauri, and I have no doubt that it 
was a Megapod mound though I did not see the bird itself. 
So far as the number of species is concerned the avifauna of the Nicobars 
is comparatively poor. At the most only about hundred species have been 
recorded and of these several are mere winter visitors that are found throughout 
the whole of the Indian region. Various species that are so common on the 
coasts of Burma, such as the crows, the hornbills, jungle-fowl, pea-fowl, and 
smaller forms, like the Chesnut-Headed Bee-eater, are all conspicuous by their 
absence. 
Blanford, Fauna of British India, Vol. IV, p. 148. 
