278 THE SILENCE OF THE WOOD 



the twenty-four species of centetidae are burrowing animals, and 

 so do not often appear in the open. And it is much the same 

 with the sixteen species of rats and mice, which live in the woods 

 and on their borders. In confirmation of the above remarks as 

 to the animal life of the forest, it may be stated that in the 

 latter part of the year 1894, and the beginning of 1895, Dr 

 Forsyth Major, the eminent naturalist and palaeontologist, lived 

 for several months collecting in the woods not very far from the 

 route we followed about eighteen years previously ; and his 

 specimens of recent mammals amounted to no fewer than six- 

 teen hundred specimens, which added twenty species to those 

 previously known. These were chiefly in the tenrecs and the 

 rats, but also included a new species of lemur. Some of these 

 forms were exceptionally interesting, one being aquatic and 

 web-footed ; and others showed transitions from a hairy to a 

 spiny condition in closely allied animals, suggesting that the 

 prickly state had been gradually attained for purposes of defence. 

 Several of the centetidae, of the genus Oryzorictes, feed largely 

 on rice, as their generic name denotes, and do much damage to 

 the crops. This is equally true of the indigenous rats and mice. 

 We have seen how the forest and coast Malagasy protect their 

 rice stores by elevated houses, with special precautions against 

 these little marauders. 



It should be added that Dr Major's unprecedentedly large 

 collections would probably have been larger still but for the 

 disturbed state of the country at that time. It was during the 

 early months of the French invasion and subsequent conquest 

 of Madagascar, when the feeling against all Europeans was very 

 strong ; so that again and again Dr Major was in considerable 

 danger of his life. Besides adding so largely to our knowledge 

 of the living fauna of the island, he made large collections of 

 the sub-fossil fauna, in collections of the remains of the extinct 

 aepyornis, hippopotami, tortoises, crocodiles, and other animals, 

 finding bones of several of the smaller mammals which he after- 

 wards discovered to be still living. 



With regard to the silence of the wood just spoken of, and 

 the apparent dearth of animal life, it must be remembered that, 

 in addition to the character of the mammalian fauna above 

 mentioned, our journey was made in the cold season, when all 

 life is much less in evidence. As we have seen in the chapters 





