V 



ABUNDANT BIRD LIFE 291 



be as pleasant and as easy as before ; every hollow was filled 

 with vegetation of a tropical character, and streams of bright 

 water crossed our path every few hundred yards. 



Bird life seems much more abundant on this western side of 

 the island than on the east. Black parrots exist in great 

 numbers and may be heard screeching all the day long. But 

 perhaps the birds which are more numerous still are the small 

 green and white parakeet (Sdrivdzo), which fly about from 

 tree to tree in large flocks, all ceaselessly chirping during their 

 rapid flight. My friend, Mr Baron, says : " A flock of them 

 settling on a bare tree gives it the appearance of being covered 

 with foliage. On one or two occasions what we thought were 

 the leaves pj^treislsul^^ the branches 



entirely bare. The * leaves ' turned out to be parakeets." 

 Guinea-fowl, in flocks of six to a dozen, are also abundant. The 

 handsome long-tailed green Tsikinoka (the Madagascar bee- 

 eater) is found here, and builds its nest in holes in sand-banks ; 

 some of these run in a horizontal direction for above a yard. A 

 very pretty hoopoe (Tdkodard) may occasionally be seen, a bird 

 which is extremely active and graceful in its movements. It 

 gives forth five or six very weird notes, as it sits on a tree during 

 the night. A species of sand-grouse, called Gadragadraka, a 

 bird of a beautiful fawn-colour, much like a pigeon in general 

 appearance, may often be heard. Like many other native bird 

 names, this name is very expressive of its chuckling. Many of 

 the birds found in the central parts of the island exist also here, 

 while there are also others peculiar to this western region. 



Part of our fifth and the whole of our sixth and last day's 

 land journey was taken at no great distance from the Ikopa 

 river ; and I began to wonder where the western forest-belt 

 was ; for, as we have seen, we had passed through no such 

 masses of dense forest as must be crossed anywhere on the 

 eastern side of the island when one comes up to the interior of 

 Madagascar. The fact seems to be that there is no such con- 

 tinuous wooded region on the western side. There is, in many 

 places, a considerable amount of country covered with forest, 

 but these are not connected, and a great deal of the surface has 

 scattered clumps of trees. In the same way also, there are 

 nothing like the difficult ascents and deep gorges to be crossed 

 on this route such as are described in Chapters IV. and V. The 



