Chapter Seven 
MADAGASCAR (I) 
NLY two hundred and fifty miles from the coast of East 
Africa lies the great island of Madagascar. Viewed as it 
usually is, on a map alongside Africa, one gets little idea of its 
real size, and it comes as a surprise to many to learn that the area 
of the island is equal to that of France, Belgium, and Holland 
combined, being a thousand miles long by three hundred and fifty 
miles wide. 
The rail system serves only the eastern region, Tamatave- 
Tananarive, with branch lines to Lake Alaotra and Antsirabe. 
This leaves some four hundred miles to the north and south, 
as well as the west coast and the country west of Tananarive, with 
no railway and few roads. 
In 1929 an Anglo-Franco-American ornithological expedition 
to the island had been organized, with Monsieur Delacour at its 
head, and I welcomed the opportunity of joining it to collect 
living specimens. The expedition proper was engaged in obtaining 
specimens for their three national museums. 
I set off in early May from Marseilles on a Messageries Mari- 
times boat, and was agreeably surprised to find on board Dr. Errol 
White, who had been sent out by the British Museum (Natural 
History) to join the expedition to collect fossils. 
On our way round the northern tip of Madagascar we put in 
at the port of Diego Suarez to coal. This is a wonderful land- 
locked natural harbor, but the town is uninteresting and we did 
not relish staying there in the heat while the boat got covered 
from end to end with coal dust. We were told that the best thing 
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