OF THE MALDIVE ISLANDS. 
148 
aS'well as the following possible grasses and sedges 
Pycreus polystachyus 
(Fimbristylis diphylla) 
( glomerata) 
Cladium Mariscus 
(Oplismenus Burmanni) 
compositus 
Apluda varia 
Eleusine ægyptiaca 
Of these 20, other observers have shown that there is a 
probability of sea carriage in the case of the Portulacas, 
Lippia, and possibly some of the others. Leaving out those 
mentioned, we find Ammannia baccifera, Polygonum bar- 
batum, and Fimbristylis diphylla confined to the Eastern 
Laccadives, F. glomerata to Diego Garcia, while the rest are 
mostly widely spread among the archipelagos, except Cla- 
dium, which is confined to the extreme south. Cladium 
occurs in the African islands to the west, and is not found 
in India proper or in Ceylon. We cannot therefore say that 
we have any evidence for carriage of seeds by attachment 
to feet of birds which is unimpeachable, but we may say 
that there is a slight amount of evidence in favour of the 
possibility, and that if this evidence be ever proved true, it 
supports, as does that of the dropped seeds and the hooked 
fruits or seeds, the view that the transport is of few species, 
and over comparatively short distances, usually not exceed- 
ing 200 miles. The poverty of the islands in land shells is 
another argument against extensive transport by birds. The 
birds of the group are not such as to lead one to believe that 
they ever had any marked influence in bringing plants to 
the Maldives. The hooded crow is found in every inhabited 
island, and every shore has at times sand-snipe, curlew, and 
plover. A rail is found in the densest bush, and seabirds— 
terns, boatswains, &c. — are found everywhere. Of migrants, 
a few of the swallow family winter in the Maldives, together 
with several species of kite and owl, and a roller in consider- 
able numbers ; green parrots, too, the only truly gramini- 
vorous forms, are occasionally seen. 
The flying-foXi Pteropus medius, hangsin enormous num- 
bers during the day from nearly every banyan in the group, 
