A SURVEY SEASON IN THE NICOBAR ISLANDS. 985 
the usual tall bamboos with their ornamental tufts of grass. Around the village, 
which incidentally was much cleaner than those on the shores of Nankauri Har- 
bour, were growing several Pumelow trees and a little way off was a large plan • 
tation of tall Pandanus trees. A short walk through the village and along a well 
kept path brought us out on the bank of a little ‘'JheeV where we had hoped to 
find some Whistling Teal, Dendrocijgna javanica (Horsfield), but we were dis- 
appointed. In the jmigle round were numerous pigeon, both Imperial Pigeon 
and Pied Imperial Pigeon being seen and shot. A little to the west of the 
village a tidal creek ran in from the mangrove swamp and here were numerous 
crabs and small fish. Several kingfishers were fljning about and a specimen of 
the Glossy Calornis, Calornis challybeus Horsf., was added to our bag. 
On the east side of Camorta, about a mile north of Naval Point, is a small bay, 
knoAvn as Barwell Swamp. Ai’ound the south and south-west sides of this bay, 
and shut off from it, except for one or two channels, by a strip of sandy fore- 
shore, is an extensive mangrove swamp. Both this swamp and the bay itself 
dry almost completely at low tide. A somewhat similar, though much smaller, 
swamp exists on the east shore of Spiteful Bay a little to the south of 
Inuanga village. In both cases these swamps provided a habitat for thousands 
of specimens of all sizes of the mollusc Potamides terebralia palustris and in smaller 
numbers of a species of Telescopiutn. In places these are in such abundance that 
they literally form a mosaic pavement over the soft surface of the mud. In 
additioir in these localities are numbers of Sesarma crabs and of the ubiquitous 
mudhopper, Periophtkalmus Icoelreuteri. 
Along the margins of these mangrove swamps, especially at low water a number 
of wading birds are to be found busily searching for food. Cm-lew, Numeneus 
arquata, are fairly common, but are remarkably shy and seldom allow one to 
get near to them. The Redshank, Totanus calidris (Linn.), the Greenshank, T. 
glottis (Linn.), and the SanderUng, Calidris arenaria (Lirm.), were all seen and iden- 
tified, and numerous ‘ snippet ’ were also present. Curlew and Whimbrel, Nu- 
meneus phceops (Lirm.), were frequently seen on the mud flats exposed at low tide 
and the Eastern Reef Heron, Lepterodius sacer (Gmel.), in both its grey and 
white phases, was by no means uncommon. The Golden Plover, Charadrius 
fulvus (Gmel.) was common both in this locality and on the grassy slopes of 
the higher ground inland. 
The central group of islands which eirclose Nairkauri and Expedition Harbours 
can boast of no rivers, such as those which are found in Great Nicobar. The only 
“river” that I know of m this group is theAUigator River that opens mto Spite- 
ful Bay on its eastern side, but the application of the term is liable to be mislead- 
ing, for it is in reality only a tidal creek that runs for the greater part of its 
length — about three-quarters of a mile— thi-ough mangrove swamps, the roots 
of the mangroves being almost completely submerged at high tide. The 
creek finally terminates in a small swampy area overgrown with the stem- 
less palm, Nipa fruticans, which only flourishes in areas where the water has 
a slightly brackish character. Hochstetterf describes a similar creek in 
the Great Nicobar in the following words : — • 
“ The extreme end termmating on the sea is stUl in progress of formation, 
swampy and regularly flooded over by brackish water during high tide 
But in the interior the mangrove trees stand perfectly bare out of the mud, 
supported by numerous air roots variously spreading over the ground. The 
grormd, flooded by brackish water is covered with a very large number of a 
species of Cerithium and inhabited by numerous crabs Farther 
up the valley the land rises and is only flooded by the river when its waters 
t Hochstetter, Dr. F. von, “ Contribution to the Geology and Physical 
Geography of the Nicobar Islands,” Selections from Records of the Government of 
India, Home Department, No. LXXVII. Calcutta, 1870. 
