Fauna of Madagascar 189 



The Cryptoprocta, the Galidias (including Atilax and Gahdictis), 

 and a Genet (Viverra SchlegeH), now first described, and nearly 

 allied to the Indian species (V. Indica), are the only carnivorous 

 mammals in Madagascar, the Lemurs being essentially fi-ugi- 

 vorous, for although they occasionally kill small birds, and cracking 

 their skulls like a nut, suck out their brains, they are scarcely flesh 

 feeders, the rest of the body being thrown away. This paucity of 

 Nature's police might be sufficient to maintain the balance of 

 power in the island while in its natural condition \ but now that 

 the entrance of man on the scene has introduced elements of 

 disturbance, the police is quite inadequate to its task. Rats and 

 mice have come in the white man's ships, and have overrun the 

 island to a degree unheard of elsewhere. 



M. Pollen says of them : 



"The mammals which are most abundant in Madagascar, are beyond con- 

 tradiction the rats and the mice, known to the inhabitants under the names of 

 Valave and Sizi. The most common are the Mus Indicus and the Mus 

 musculus. They have probably been introduced by merchant ships. The 

 quantity of these animals is so great, that at night one can scarcely walk a step 

 without seeing them running about in hundreds in search of food. I shall 

 never forget the torments that the rats caused us, during our abode in the 

 forests stretching along the banks of the river Kongony. Their teeth spared 

 nothing, and we were often obliged to share our repast with these annoying 

 gourmands. It happened even several times that they gnawed away the soles 

 of the feet of my Malagese servants, who, plunged in deep sleep, did not per- 

 ceive it until next day, when the burning pain of the wounds apprised them 

 of it." 



They are terribly destructive to the sugar canes, and all pro- 

 visions not put in a place of safety, the most approved contrivance 

 for which is a circular piece of wood, like the bottom of a cask, 

 perched on the top of a pole. The first colonists of Bourbon Isle 

 (the Isle de Reunion) suffered so much from the rats and mice 

 between 1548 and 1664, that they were literally driven from the isle. 



The account given of the Centetes ecaudatus, the Madagascar 

 hedgehog, is full and interesting. These animals pass the half of 

 the year buried in profound sleep — and this takes place in the cold 

 season, and not in the hot season as has been generally reported. 

 About the month of May or June these animals dig a hole in which 

 they sleep from the month of April to December, with their head 

 nestled between their hind feet. The place of these holes is often 

 indicated by a little mound of moss or soil, like mole-heaps. At 

 this time they are very fat, and tlie natives of Madagascar and the 



