To escape this unpleasant little journey, we moved a day or two later farther up the strait to where the shore was free from coral, and therefore more accessible, although having reached it, we were confronted by a precipitous cliff of crumbling earth, but when the top was gained, after a zigzag climb, we moved on level ground covered with heavy jungle. The smaller species of birds were very rare here, but we got almost immediately the first specimen of the island parrots--the brilliant green _Palæornis magnirostris_. This bird is the local representative of a continental form, from which it differs only in the enormous size of the bill, which in the male is of bright scarlet. It is a somewhat callous thing to attempt to do, but should one succeed in only severely wounding a parrot, others of the species are sure to be obtained. The cries of the injured bird so attract its companions that they will gather near from all parts within hearing, and seem so possessed with curiosity to know what is wrong, as to be, for the time, perfectly oblivious of the collector and his gun, while they sit around or fly nearer and nearer to their wounded companion and answer its loud croaking notes with others equally harsh. Parrots of three species were very numerous, and perhaps the most frequent noise in the jungle was their shrill scream, uttered as they flew from tree to tree. Many big black crows, too, flopped--a word which exactly describes their movement--noisily about, and, when hidden by a screen of leaves, we mimicked their cawing notes, more bewildered birds it would be difficult to find. In these woods the larger birds were fairly common, and the traps obtained for us numerous rats of two varieties, one of which squealed pitifully when approached (_Mus stoicus_, sp. nov., and _M. flebilis_, sp. nov.). The Archipelago is inhabited by a tribe known as Aka-Balawa, now on the verge of extinction, as it numbers only twenty individuals; but the sole traces of occupation we came across were the decayed remains of a canoe, lying up one of the mangrove creeks that branch off from the strait. We remained here three days, all that could be spared from the time given to the cruise, and early on January 11th left for Port Blair. CHAPTER II PORT BLAIR We enter the Harbour--Surveillance--Ross Island Pastimes--Visit the Chief Commissioner--The Harbour--Cellular Jail--Lime Kilns--Phoenix Bay--Hopetown--Murder of Lord Mayo--Chatham Island--Haddo and the Andamanese--Tea Gardens--Viper Island and Jail--The Convicts--Occupations--Punishments--Troops--Departure. A fresh breeze from the north raised an army of dancing white-caps on the sea, as, rolling along with the wind astern, we made the run to Port Blair in about seven hours.