272 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
The dwarf xerophilous vegetation, which is a feature of this 
part of the country, extends about twenty miles inland from 
Tulear and continues at varying width for hundreds of miles 
from the southwest, right through the south to the southeast 
corner of Madagascar. It must be of very distant origin judging 
by the way everything has adapted itself so perfectly to the arid 
conditions. In fact, this region is the botanist’s paradise with its 
great wealth of endemic species. 
It was here that the giant zpyornis, the extinct ostrich-like bird, 
formerly roamed, and fragments of its enormous eggs are not 
uncommon. 
The dry conditions are caused not so much by drought, i.e., lack 
of seasonal rains, as by the extreme porousness of the soil to a 
great depth. Thus during the six months’ dry season the ground 
becomes so desiccated that any flora not adapted to such condi- 
tions cannot possibly survive. 
From Tulear, my first objective was a village on the Onilahy 
River in the country occupied by the Masikoro—a sub-tribe of 
the Sakalava. 
I got word of a lorry that was going to Tongobory and would 
thus be able to drop me off at the desired spot. It so happened 
that my exit from Tulear was at half an hour’s notice, and I left 
with no servants or bearers. This unorthodox behavior in the 
European mode of travel, I learned later, roused greater suspicion 
than ever in the minds of the local police. 
I descended alone at the village of Ambohimavelo, planting my 
kit on the roadside, and, after contacting the village Chief, settled 
down in a grass hut, thankful to be away from native detectives 
peeping at me from behind trees. 
The luxuriant vegetation along the banks of the Onilahy River 
contrasts greatly with that of the surrounding country where the 
dry stony earth is covered with thick sub-desert scrub. Much of 
the latter is composed of dwarf trees from six to ten feet in height, 
intermixed with bushes and lianas which are aphilous or pro- 
vided with only minute foliage. I spent a week in this arid region 
but the only mammals located were Telfair’s Tenrec and a Pygmy 
Lemur. Considering the vast extent of this type of vegetation and 
