FAUNA. 



199 



chilla), the scavengers of Asia and Africa. As 

 at Aden, so here, there are no common crows or 

 sparrows ; the place of the former is taken hy the 

 African species (corvus scapulatus), with white 

 waistcoat, popularly called the 'parson crow/ 

 and the latter appears in the shape of the Java 

 variety, which, introduced about thirty years ago 

 (1857) by Captain Ward, a Salem ship-captain, 

 has multiplied prodigiously. Green birds, like 

 Amedavats, muscicapse of sorts, especially the 

 'king-crow' of India, here called • Drongo,' 

 abound ; and visitors, like the French savant on 

 the Dead Sea, speak of a humming-bird, a purely 

 New World genus, probably mistaking for it a 

 large hawk-moth. The parroquet resembles the 

 small green species of India: it is tamed and 

 taught to talk. Zanzibar cannot boast of the 

 Madagascar parrot, a plain, brown, thick-bodied 

 bird, celebrated for distinct articulation. 1 Mar- 

 tens do not build at Zanzibar (?) : they halt at 

 the Island in their migrations ; and one kind, it 

 has been remarked, never remains longer than 

 four to five days. After the rains the lagoons 

 are covered with wild- duck, mallard, and wid- 

 geon. The snipe (jack, common, and solitary), 



1 Mr Lyons M'Leod says (vol. ii. 347) that a 'very hand- 

 some jet-black parrot ' is to be procured there. 



