204 Rev. J. Sibree, Jr., on the 



native villages. The Rev. L. Dahle, hovrever, thinks the 

 word to be one belonging to the original African element in 

 the Malagasy language, and allied to the Swahili kipanga, a 

 bird of prey, and to a Zulu root, panga, to seize, ravage, &c. 

 Another of its provincial names is Pariakorbvana, or "Dis- 

 perser-of-Thrushes." Mr. Cory tells me, " I have known 

 a Pap^-ugo take meat out of a man^s hand as he carried it 

 from market, and I have often heard natives say they have 

 seen the same. There is a habit the tame Pigeons here have 

 acquired, and that is, of flying directly a Papango comes in 

 sight, and continuing to do so until it has passed, proving 

 that they know this Kite never stoops, but always pounces ; 

 yet I have never known them touch even a sitting pigeon.''^ 



Several Malagasy proverbs refer to the Papango ; e. g., to 

 its rapacity and boldness, in the following : '' Acting like a 

 Kite^s claws ; not taking gently, but greedily."" So again : 

 " A Kite swooping over the sea, swooping also over people's 

 land ; " and again : " The wild cat is weary, for the fowl (it 

 was seeking) is carried off" by the Kite." Occasionally it 

 seems that it catches more than it can eat, for another proverb 

 says : " The Kite that caught a tortoise : it certainly got it, 

 but did not get much after all.^^ And its occasional food 

 of locusts is mentioned in this : " Not (like) a little swarm 

 of locusts and afraid of a Kite." One of the native Hain- 

 teny, or oratorical flourishes, says : " The Kite is an arrant 

 thief, the Crow is blear-eyed, and the Brown Stork {Takatra) 

 is long-necked : all are rogues and abuse one another." 



Another very widely-spread rapacious bird is the little lively 

 and noisj HttsikltsikajOY Kestrel {Tinnunculus newtoni) ,^\\\ch. 

 is found in or about every village (at least in Imeriua), often 

 perched upon the gable '' horns " of the houses, or even on the 

 extreme point of the lightning-conductors. It is by no means 

 shy, and one can sometimes approach it quite closely, and 

 see its bright fearless eyes, before it darts away. It is fond 

 of the same resting-place, and, after a noisy chatter with its 

 mate, takes a sweeping flight for a few hundred yards and 

 returns to its former position. There are two varieties of 

 this Kestrel ; one has a light-coloured, the other a brown- 



