On Birds observed in Madagascar. 265 



on the branches of the trees, at others chasing one another back- 

 wards and forwards, threading the dark-leaved boughs of the 

 banyan; the cock bird singing in flight a loud, lively strain, 

 much after the manner of the Petrocossyphi or Rock Thrushes. 



XXVIII. — Notes on Birds observed in Madagascar. By S. Roch, 

 Assistant-Surgeon, Royal Artillery, C.M.Z.S., and Edward 

 Newton, M.A., C.M.Z.S. Part I. 



(Plates VIII. & IX.) 



On submitting to the readers of ' The Ibis ' the following notes 

 on the birds we observed on our journey between Tamatave on 

 the coast and Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, we must, 

 in justice to ourselves, explain that they are necessarily short, 

 and in most cases unsatisfactory, in consequence of the little time 

 the Embassy, of which we formed a part, had to accomplish their 

 mission. 



We left Mauritius on the 22nd of September, 18(51; and the 

 wet and unhealthy season in Madagascar commencing in Novem- 

 ber, it was most desirable that we should return to Tamatave 

 before that time. 



As subsequent events have shown, it was lucky we were able 

 to do so, almost all the Europeans who performed the journey 

 after us having been attacked with fever. 



We arrived at Tamatave on the 26th of September, and on 

 the 1st of October started for Antananarivo. Our route lay along 

 the coast to the southward for about seventy miles, the most 

 part of which was traversed by canoes on an almost continuous 

 chain of lakes and rivers, running within a few hundred yards 

 of the sea, and generally separated from it by a bank of sand, 

 usually covered with brush-wood and stunted trees, of which 

 Vacoas [Pandanus) and the Filao [Casuarinus madagascariensis) 

 are perhaps the most conspicuous. On the land side we occa- 

 sionally skirted a low forest ; and sometimes the lake or river took 

 us further from the sea, and led us through marshes where gigantic 

 Arums and " Traveller^s-trees" {Urania speciosa) were numerous . 

 at others the vegetation was simply coarse grass and rushes. 



In five days we reached Andoviranto; and the following 



