AN EXTRAORDINARY NEST 69 



were shivering with the cold, for we were now two thousand 

 nine hundred feet above the sea, and their scanty clothing was 

 but a poor protection. For an hour or two we saw little except 

 for a few yards around us ; but as the sun rose the fog rolled 

 up like a vast curtain, revealing the line of the Ifody and Angavo 

 hills straight before us ; the slopes were partly covered with 

 trees, but a good deal of their surface was brown and bare. 

 In the deepest of the many valleys which cut the surface of the 

 Ankay plain runs a beautiful and rapid river, the Mangoro, 

 about one hundred and fifty feet wide where we crossed it in 

 canoes. This is the longest river of the east coast, and would 

 make a fine means of access to the interior, were its course not 

 interrupted by rapids and cataracts at many points. 



Soon after crossing the river we commenced the ascent of 

 Ifody, a very steep and difficult path, for an hour or more ; but 

 as we mounted higher and higher a glorious prospect gradually 

 revealed itself. Looking back after we had reached the summit, 

 there was the Moramanga plain, bounded by the distant forest 

 stretching away north and south, until lost in the dim distance, 

 while below us the Mangoro could be seen in a wavy blue line 

 in the Ankay plain. Before us, to the left, was a lovely valley, 

 fertile and green with rice-fields, watered by the Valala river and 

 shut hi by the Angavo range of mountains, while on the right 

 was a confused mass of hills,' looking like a mighty sea which 

 had suddenly been hardened and fixed in its tossings. 



There was much more evidence of cultivation as we proceeded, 

 the valleys being occupied by rice-fields, which were kept 

 covered with a few inches of water by careful irrigation. Among 

 the bird population of Madagascar there are some eighteen 

 species of herons and storks which are seen in the marshes and 

 rice-fields. One of the most noticeable of these is the Tdkatra 

 or tufted umber, a long-legged stork with a large plume or 

 crest. It builds an extraordinarily large nest, which is visible 

 at a considerable distance and might be taken at first sight for 

 half-a-load of hay. It is usually placed on the fork of a large 

 tree, and is composed of sticks and grass, plastered inside with 

 a thick lining of mud. It is from four and a half to six feet in 

 diameter, dome-shaped, with a lateral entrance, and is divided 

 into three chambers, in one of which its'two large eggs are laid. 

 The entrance is by a narrow tunnel and is always placed so as 



