1892.] 
HI 
visit we cotild see when we landed, from the new foot-prints on the wet 
sand round the spring and from the fresh dung there and along the 
pathway, that the goats had visited the spot overnight.* 
Birds : —A brief sketch of the Avi-fauna of the islands has already 
been written by Mr. A. 0. Hume.f His visit to each island was how¬ 
ever very short; it may not therefore be uninteresting to give a list 
of the birds seen by him and to mention in addition those seen and 
recognised by the writer. It is unnecessary to say that even now the 
list must be very far from complete. 
List of the Birds of Narcondam and Barren Island. 
1. CUNCUMA LEUCOGASTBR Gmel. (White-bellied Sea-Eagle.) Stray 
Feathers ii, 149. 
Very plentiful in both islands, bat especially in Narcondam, where 
to watch six or eight of them sweep and wheel and dart at each other, 
apparently in play, far overhead, was a most fascinating occupation. 
While ascending the mountain that composes the island we saw what 
was evidently the nest of this species at about 1,500 ft. elev. 
Distrib. India, Burma, Andamans, Hicobars, Malaya. 
2. COLLOCALIA Linchi Horsf. (Rock Swiftlet.) Stray Feathers ii, 
157. 
A swiftlet is very common on both islands and can be seen as one 
rows along the coast darting in and out from every cavern hollowed by 
the sea under the old lava-flows. As no edible birds’-nests are found 
on either island this is most probably the species that one observes. J 
Distrib. Andamans, Hicobars, Malaya. 
* The landing of goats on such islands has little to recommend it from the 
economic point of view while the humanitarian aspect of the act has two sides. It 
is no doubt praiseworthy to attempt to stock such islands with goats in the hope 
that their flesh may prove of use to shipwrecked mariners, but to deliberately condemn 
the animals to a death by thirst—as is done every time that goats are landed onNar- 
condam—appears to the writer to be an act which should not be repeated. Nor is 
it at all certain that the landing of goats on Barren Island may not be—all the 
physical conditions of the island considered—an act of even more refined cruelty. 
f Stray Feathers, vol ii, pp. 103 — 110. The localities are again mentioned in 
connection with the birds themselves in Mr. Hume’s detailed list of Andamans 
birds, 1. c. pp. 139-324. 
t It ought to be observed however that some recent writers, (very notably 
Guillemard, in the Cruise of the Marchesa, ii, 87), return to the view which Hume, 
1. c,, so strenuously opposes and apparently satisfactorily refutes, that Gollocalia 
Linchi is the swift which makes edible nests. If Guillemard be right then the 
Rock Swiftlet referred to by Mr. Hume and the writer must be a different species. 
237 
