FLORA AND FAUNA 
53 
are historically verified, the presumption seems probable 
that the extinction of these gigantic but perhaps some¬ 
what unwieldy birds is connected with the appearance 
of Man, and that the earliest immigrants from Africa 
used them for food in every possible way, and sought 
out their eggs for the same purpose. I was surprised 
to find that in many places, possibly kitchen middens, 
^pyornis bones were so numerous that a Creole was 
able to collect for me a whole chest full. This was in 
the Western part of the island. 
The Reptilia, the only class wliich has any really 
dangerous animals, include numerous crocodiles, which 
are found in nearly all the rivers. An endeavour has 
been made to raise them into a separate species [Croc- 
odilis madagascarieiisis^ but they are obviously only a 
local variety of the ordinary Nilotic crocodile. 
The lizards are represented by the nimble and useful 
geckoes, which often come into the houses to catch insects. 
Species of skink and gongylus are very common in the 
coast region, but the family most numerously represented 
is that of the chameleons, which must have had its 
central point in Madagascar, or perhaps in its neighbour¬ 
hood. Side by side with species three feet in length 
there are forms which are truly dwarfish. Bottger, so 
early as 1877, had named no less than sixteen species, 
among which the most splendid in colour is ChamcBleo 
pardalis. The snakes are harmless. A magnificent 
species {Heterodon madagascariensis) may be observed 
with extraordinary frequency under stones. Gigantic 
snakes too are not wanting; they are represented by two 
genera [Pelophilus and Xiphosomd), but are little feared 
by the natives. Psainmophis is widely distributed in 
sandy soils. The tree-snakes have unique representatives 
in Langaha nasuta and L. crista galli. Of the Chelonia 
Testiido radiata may be mentioned, as well as T.pardalis^ 
as exclusively dwelling on the land. The box-tortoise 
