INHABITING MADAGASCAR ETC. 47 



H. crassirostris] with which I am acquainted in a wild state are very similar 

 in their habits and manners. They frequent forest and bush only, keeping 

 entirely amongst the trees and brushwood, and never resorting to cultivated 

 and cleared places or feeding on the ground. Their food consists of fruits 

 and berries ; and in no instance have I discovered the remains of other diet in 

 the gizzards of those which I have examined. They may often be seen taking 

 long and high flights, in parties of two or three, over the tops of trees from 

 one part of the forest to another, or chasing each other, sometimes in the low 

 brushwood and at other times in the branches of the taller trees. They are 

 inquisitive and tame ; and any one entering a forest where they are is sure to 

 be attended by one or two, which, flying close to his head or hopping on the 

 low boughs a few feet above him, will follow him for some distance, uttering 

 a low whistle or harsh croak, and, comically jerking their tail on one side 

 and their head on the other, look down askant on the intruder.^' 



My brother continues his remarks : — 



"In Mauritius and Seychelles the species found in each have much 

 diminished in number, chiefly on account of the clearing of the forests in 

 order to plant sugar-canes in the former and cocoa-nuts in the latter. In 

 Mauritius I have reason to believe that many eggs and young birds of all 

 sorts are destroyed by Monkeys (^Macacus radiatus)^^ as I know that in one 

 portion of forest, where these mischievous creatures had been nearly exter- 

 minated in consequence of their depredations on the neighbouring cane-fields, 

 in two or three years all the smaller species of birds increased in a sufficiently 

 marked manner, and the ' Merles ' [^H. olivaceus] and ' Cuisiniers ' [^Oxynotus 

 rufiventer] in particular. 



" The ' Merles ' have a pleasant song, not unlike that of the Mistletoe- 

 Thrush [Turdus viscworus\ but somewhat hoarser. The bird, when singing, 

 always chooses the topmost branch, generally a dead one, of some tall tree 



■^ ^^ These were introduced from India^ and are now spread over all the remaining forest and 

 rocky ground.''^ 



H 2 



