Birds of Madagascar. 563 



the highest trees, from which they are often detached by the 

 wind. These nests, falling to the ground, are broken, so that 

 the larvae become an easy prey to the Bustard- Quails, which 

 eagerly devour them. The flight of these birds is clumsy, 

 resembling that of the Rails ; they do not fly far, but return 

 quickly to the ground, hiding in the long grass, in which they 

 run with great speed. They scratch the ground to find food, 

 like the domestic fowl, and often fight furiously together. 



The young Malagasy often entrap these Bustard- Quails by 

 surrounding a considerable extent of ground, and gradually 

 driving the birds together towards a cage with snares, 

 imitating at the same time the call of the cock bird. By this 

 contrivance they capture a considerable number of hens. 

 M. Pollen says also that the foot of this bird, hung round the 

 neck, is believed by the Sakalava to be an infallible remedy 

 for disorders of the stomach. I think, however, it is more 

 probable that the two words are of independent and different 

 origin, and that the belief in the remedial value of the bird 

 for stomach-complaints has arisen from the identity of the 

 two words, a kind of homoeopathic principle, of which Mala- 

 gasy folk-lore and superstition are full of examples, as may 

 be seen by looking at Mr. Dahle^s papers on Vintana and 

 Sikidy ("Destiny and Divination") in the ^Antananarivo 

 Annual,' Nos. x., xi., and xii., or indeed by carefully examin- 

 ing the 'Malagasy-English Dictionary.' 



The various names of this bird are all compounds of the 

 word kibo, as Kibbbo, Kibotay, "■ Dung-Quail," and Kibokely, 

 " Little Quail." M. Grandidier relates a story about two 

 young Mahafaly women having been saved from death by 

 some of these Quails, in consequence of which it has become 

 a sacred or tabooed bird to their descendants *. 



* Mr. Cory tells me : " The nest of the Bustard-Quail is composed of 

 dry grass aud is partially domed, which is very curious in a game-bird. 

 The eggs have a yellowish ground, heavily spotted and blotched with 

 rich brown ; they number from three to five. I was surprised and inter- 

 ested to find that what 1 had always taken for the cock was in reality . 

 the hen bird." 



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