160 
[Deo. 
to the fact that the island, being so remote and so inaccessible, is|[largely 
frequented by fruit-eating pigeons and is one, (it has been even said, is 
the only), known locality in which the large Wicobars pigeon (Galoenas 
nicobarica) breeds. Fruit-eating bats too are abundant in the island 
and are perhaps partly responsible for the introduction of some of these 
species. Among the more interesting species of this kind is the Batura, 
which in most localities is considered, and probably correctly considered, 
a species introduced by man but which here undoubtedly must be a bird- 
introduced plant. Not only is it an exceedingly rare thing for the 
Nicobarese to visit the island, Batura is not a plant with which they 
are acquainted. The writer, who collected all the possibly introduced 
species to be found in the neighbourhood of the two villages on Car 
Nicobar visited by him did not find it present. Moreover it was apparent¬ 
ly not found either by Mr. Jelinek during the visit of the frigate “ No¬ 
vara ” or by Mr. Kurz during his visit to the Nicobars, and no Solanaaece 
are enumerated in Mr. Kurz’s list of Nicobars plants in the Society’s 
Journal, vol. xlv, part 2, p. 115 et seq. Though uninhabited and apparently 
very rarely visited there are some Coco-nut trees; the nuts are, how¬ 
ever, small and their flavour is rather poor. The few trees that occur are 
just within the Pandanus ieacG, and there is nothing like a Coco-nut zone. 
There is no water on the island; still, besides the bats, there occur, of 
mammalia, both rats and pigs ; the traces of the latter were very com¬ 
mon and one pig’s skull was found in the jungle. The great feature of 
the island, however, is the enormous multitude of Nicobar pigeons. These 
swarm everywhere, in the trees and on the ground, and remind one by 
their numbers of an English “ rookery.”* No snakes were seen, but 
the number and variety of the lizards was very remarkable. 
One of the most striking features of the island was the freshness 
and greenness of the foliage, even in March ; a circumstance that, consi¬ 
dering the nature of the soil, must be altogether explained by the re¬ 
markably heavy dews that are deposited in these latitudes. Landing 
as the writer did, at day-break, he found the leaves quite as heavily 
laden with water as they could possibly have been after a thunder¬ 
shower, and on the side of the island away from the sun the dews had 
not yet become completely dissipated at 10 A. M. 
After spending eight hours on shore the writer, himself, but not the 
island, exhausted, had reluctantly to return to the “ Nancowry ” which 
at once steamed off to the Andamans, reaching Port Blair on Monday 
at noon. 
* For an interesting account of the appearance of the island see Mr. Ilnme’s 
paper already referred to; Stray Feathers, vol. ii, pp. 94—97. 
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