82 BIRDS 



and the other of pale yellow tint, the leaves appearing on the 

 prickly stems later on. 



As the season advances the people burn the grass over the 

 hillsides and open moors, as we saw at Ambatomanga when 

 coming up the country. There can be no doubt that to this 

 practice is largely attributable the bare and treeless appearance 

 of the central provinces. The young trees which would spring 

 up, especially in the hollows and sheltered places, have no 

 chance against the yearly fires which sweep over the country, 

 and the little vegetation which has held its own is constantly 

 liable to be lessened as time goes on. Sometimes a dozen fires, 

 long curving lines of flame, may be seen at once in different 

 directions, and these give a strangely picturesque appearance 

 to the nights of springtime in Imerina. 



The weather often becomes very hot and sultry before the 

 rains come on, and the usually bright clear skies and pure 

 atmosphere of other months are exchanged for thick oppressive 

 days, when the distant hills disappear altogether, and the 

 nearer ones seem quite distant in the dense haze. This is 

 probably due, to a great extent, to the grass-burning just 

 described, and also to the frequent burning of the forest away 

 to the east. As the weather gets warmer a few birds come up 

 from the wooded regions of the country, and wherever there is 

 a small patch of wood the oft-repeated cry of the Kankdfotra, 

 the Madagascar cuckoo, may be heard, much resembling the 

 syllables " kow-kow, kaw-kow-koo." 



And here we must notice more fully the birds to be seen in 

 Imerina. They are few compared with those in the warmer 

 and forest regions, and are mostly of powerful flight, principally 

 birds of prey, swifts, swallows and water-birds. The two 

 coast regions east and west are, on the contrary, well 

 peopled with birds of all sorts, and while the greater part of 

 these inhabit indifferently one or the other region, there are a 

 certain number which have their habitat almost exclusively in 

 one region only, and give it its special characteristics. There 

 are also some which keep to a still more limited area, not going 

 beyond a very restricted range. As far as is at present known, 

 two hundred and ten species of birds have been found in Mada- 

 gascar ; and the very special character of its avi-fauna may be 

 seen from the fact that it includes forty-one genera and a 



