Mr. E. Newton^s Second Visit to Madagascar. 453 



Point than at Fenerive. Its hollow cry of " Bop, bop, bop, 

 bop,'' repeated perhaps twenty times, and becoming lower, 

 slower, and more hollow as it draws to a close, is exceedingly 

 curious, and it is difficult to tell whether it proceeds from a 

 bush close at hand or from some place half a mile off. The 

 bird is almost solitary in its habits, and more than a pair are 

 seldom seen in company, the male occupying a conspicuous 

 place on the top of some thicket, while his partner is concealed 

 within. They appear to feed amongst the branches of bushes, 

 and, as far as my experience goes, not on the ground. 



48. Coua ccerulea (Linnaeus). 

 « Tashu.'' 



I only met with it at Chasmanna, where it is tolerably com- 

 mon, near the edge of the forest ; its note is harsh, and its name 

 " Tashu" nearly expresses it. One I wounded in the wing was 

 very active and cunning, climbing like a Parrot, with the help of 

 its beak, from the ground into the thickest part of the clump of 

 bushes in which it fell, and there concealing itself. The stomachs 

 of those I examined were fill with the gum or resin of some 

 tree. The flesh is particularly fat and greasy. 



In the female the iris is dark brown, skin round the eye co- 

 balt-blue, beak and legs black. 



49. CucuLUs KOCHii, Hartlaub, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 224. 



" Kankarfotra" (figuratively, " noisy, clamorous," Freeman's 

 Malagasy Dictionary) . 



Heard several times at Chasmanna ; its note much like that 

 of C. canorus with a bad cold. A female killed on the 2nd 

 October would, I think, soon have bred. In this specimen the 

 iris was orange-yellow, beak black, with base of lower mandible 

 yellowish ; gape, skin round the eye, legs, and feet yellow ; claws 

 dusky, except those of the halluces, which are yellowish flesh- 

 colour. 



50. Leptosomus afer (Gmelin). 



" Vorondreo " (Freeman says, " the name of a bird supposed 

 to carry a philter with it ") . 



Seen all along the coast. 



Iris and beak dark brown ; legs brown in front, behind orange, 

 soles orange. 



