226 Kev, J. Sibree, Jr., on the 



' O yonder Reo, O yonder R^o ! 

 Take me to father's well, 

 And I will smooth thy tail.' 



" * Reo, reo, reo' said the bird, * come, let me carry you, my 

 lass, for I feel for the sorrowful/ So the bird took her away 

 and placed her on a tree just above the well of her father and 

 mother •"■^. 



The Vorondreo also figures to advantage in the following 

 piece, entitled " Don't send a Fool on an Errand " : — 



'' The Weaver Finch {Tsikirity) longs for, and the Sun-bird 

 [Sioy] is sorrowful, — but don't send the Warbler [Fitatra), 

 for when he goes into the plantation he will be oflF. The 

 Weaver Finch longs for, and the Sun-bird is sorrowful, — but 

 don't send the Cardinal -bird {Fbdy), for when he meets a 

 friend he will forget all about it. The Weaver-bird longs 

 for, and the Sun-bird is sorrowful, — so send the Vorondreo, 

 for he will both chirp and deliver his message " f- 



5. The fifth family of the Wide-gaping Birds found in 

 Madagascar^ that of the Goatsuckers — from which, indeed, the 

 Suborder takes its name — is represented here by two species. 

 Of the first of these [Caprimulgus madagascariensis) , called 

 Fandikalalana, i. e., " Road-crosser,'" M. Pollen says that it is 

 pretty common on the north-west coast. After sunset these 

 birds leave the recesses of the forest, where they rest during 

 the day in the grass, and begin a rapid flight along the border 

 of the woodsj as well as over the surface of the water. They 

 have the habit of sometimes rising, from a slight elevation 

 above the ground, straight into the air ; then they let them- 

 selves suddenly fall, to resume their ordinary mode of flight. 

 They feed exclusively on nocturnal insects, chiefly moths and 

 beetles. The note of these birds is monotonous, resembling 

 the syllables tar-tar-ta-ro , from which comes the names of 

 Tataro and Tartarolepeka, given to them by the northern 

 Skkalava. 



The other species of Goatsucker (C. enarratus) has appa- 



* See also " The Oratory, Songs, Legends, and Folk-tales of the Mala- 

 gasy," by the present writer, in ' The Folk-lore Journal,' vol. i. (1863), 

 p. 236. 



t See ' Specimens of Malagasy Folk-lore,' p. 30. 



