258 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
It is very doubtful if a philepitta had ever been captured alive, 
but under the circumstances there was no point in keeping them, 
so I gave them their freedom. 
One of the most conspicuous birds of the forest was the Blue 
Coua, a bird closely related to the coucals but resembling the 
touracos of Africa in size and form. Like the coucals it lives almost 
entirely on insects and other forms of animal-life. 
The most exciting creature I got glimpses of was the curious 
rail-like bird called the Roatelo (Mesoenas). Its relationship was 
for a long time in doubt and it has been placed with the passerine 
and the gallinaceous birds, but the study of its anatomy has proved 
it to be an aberrant crane—showing affinities with the so-called 
sun-bitterns of South America and the kagu of New Caledonia. 
Although apparently flightless the roatelo makes its nest of 
twigs above ground on a low fork of a tree, which is reached in 
some cases by climbing up a sloping trunk, and in others by 
hopping from branch to branch. 
Like most, if not all, terrestrial forest-dwelling birds, the 
Mesoenas has highly developed senses of hearing and sight, and 
like the true pittas may be common without being seen. On the 
few occasions when I spotted Mesoenas I was sitting quite still 
on a log. Even so it was obvious that the bird suspected my 
presence, for it alternately ran rapidly and then remained motion- 
less, its colors so harmonizing with the background that it was 
exceedingly difficult to see when stationary. 
The eastern forests are very rich in orchids, many of the 
branches of the larger trees being festooned with them. At Perinet 
during my visit the most conspicuous (being in flower) was 
Angraecum germinyanum. These have but two leaves and no 
pseudo-bulbs, and are attached to the leafy outer branches of ever- 
green trees, so that when not displaying their white waxy flowers 
they are very difficult to spot. 
After six weeks of Perinet I returned to Tananarive, but as there 
seemed to be a stalemate on the so-called battlefront, with no 
inkling as to when the war would really start, let alone end, I 
decided to make another visit to the eastern forest, this time 
farther north, to the east of Lake Alaotra. 
