BIRDS OF PREY. 



49 



certainly nowhere else to be found. The explanation of this 

 may be deferred for a little to consider it on the widest avail- 

 able data. 



Eaptores. — The rapacious birds are well represented in 

 Madagascar by a number of species of hawks, kites, and 

 falcons, but there is only one known eagle (Ealietes vocife- 

 roicles), while the owls are also numerous. These latter are 

 considered by the Malagasy as birds of evil omen, and are 

 consequently persecuted by the natives. On the other 

 hand, one of the hawks (the vbromaliiry, i.e., " strong bird ") 

 has been adopted as a sort of crest or national emblem by 

 the Hova Government. It gives a name to the tribe inhabit- 

 ing the capital and its neighbourhood, and an immense figure 

 of the bird crowns the lofty high-pitched roof of the two 

 chief royal palaces in Antananarivo. In the neighbourhood 

 of the ancient capital of Imdrina I have occasionally seen 

 flocks of several hundred hawks hovering in the air at an 

 immense height, and have wondered how such numbers 

 could obtain food. 



In the same place the crows are equally numerous and 

 almost as bold. The Madagascar crow is not quite so much 

 like an undertaker in appearance as is his English relative. 

 He is as large as a raven, and has a more clerical air about 

 him, having a white tie or collar round his neck, and a white 

 breast that may easily be imagined to be a very large pair of 

 bands. He is probably nearly related to Corvus capella, the 

 " chaplain crow." 



Water-Birds. — Many parts of Madagascar are exceedingly 

 attractive to sportsmen from the variety of species and great 

 numbers of the water-birds — wild ducks, divers, teal, muscovy 

 ducks, waterhens, sandpipers, herons, storks, and ibis — found 

 in the marshes, lakes, and rivers. One of the finest countries 

 that a sportsman could desire is the province of Antsihanaka, 

 which is situated at the northern termination of the long 

 narrow valley between the two eastern bines of forest. It 

 consists of an almost perfectly flat plain, about thirty-five 

 miles long by fifteen broad, the greater part of which is marsh, 

 and at the north-east corner deepens into an extensive lake. 

 As the villages are few, and are mostly situated at the foot of 



D 



