From the incident we learned a lesson, and thereafter, had the proverbial New Zealander been on the beach in the early mornings, he might have seen a little boat approach the shore, with a blue-clad, brown-skinned Malay and a couple of white men _in puris naturalibus_. Outside the belt of surf, the latter would jump overboard, and, seizing favourable opportunities, wade to and fro with sundry bundles. Presently the dinghy would return, with a solitary occupant, to a schooner in the bay, while the others, after assuming a simple toilet and a peculiar sporting equipment, would disappear from his view, leaving the Antipodean observer alone on the shore. Although a little farther from the village, the best landing-place when the sea is rough is on the stretch of sand next to that adjacent to M[=u]s, and just to westward and inside the rocky point that separates the two strips of beach. Sometimes we shot in the scrub and plantations surrounding the village, and sometimes we went a few miles along the bay towards Sáwi, now walking on the beach, now along the brow of the cliffs. The view from these last was very beautiful: on the one hand a forest of palms, pandanus and casuarina trees, on the other a line of waving grass; and below, the blue sea breaking in snowy rollers on a golden beach. At times we met parties of natives proceeding from village to village in picturesque groups--the men carrying nothing but a _dáo_, their warm-brown stalwart figures relieved only by the red _kissát_ and white chaplet of pandanus with which their hair was bound; and the women draped in scarlet cotton, and adorned with chains of rupees and numerous silver bangles. All would stare stolidly, and pass in silence; for in the Nicobars, where one man is as good as the next, and no degrees of rank are known, there are no words of greeting or graceful salutes such as one would meet with amongst strange Malays or natives of India. The forest at Sáwi was open, and although of a heavy description, grew on land that seemed of very recent formation. It contained some of the finest specimens of urostigma trees we had ever seen, whose many aëreal roots, springing from a wide expanse of ground, met far overhead in support of immense masses of foliage. In this heavy jungle we obtained specimens of _Astur butleri_, a little forest hawk with back and wings of a beautiful dark grey, allied species to which are found in several of the other islands. Here, too, we met with _Carpophaga insularis_, a variety of a widely-spread fruit-pigeon, _C. ænea_, from which it differs only in having a plumage slightly less bright. We made acquaintance also with _Palæornis erythrogenys_, an exceedingly pretty parrot, and the only bird of its kind occurring in the Nicobars until _P. caniceps_ is reached in the southern islands; but of the mound-building megapodes we had expected to find, there was no trace, although it was said they occurred in the middle of the island.