Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/392

 THE

FOLK-LORE OF MALAGASY BIRDS.

URING previous furloughs in England—from twelve to eight years ago—I had the pleasure of contributing several papers on Madagascar folk-lore to the Record and to the Journal of this society, my latest contributions being a series of articles on "The Oratory, Songs, Legends, and Folk-tales of the Malagasy", with translations of numerous specimens of these productions of the native mind. In these papers a few references were made to Malagasy superstitions about the birds of their country; but as I have recently paid some attention to Madagascar ornithology, and have written several articles on the subject for an annual publication which I have edited for several years past, and which is printed at Antanànarìvo, the capital of the island, I have collected together much additional information on the folk-lore of Malagasy birds. My papers will be given in full, with further additions, in the quarterly numbers of the Ibis for this year; but I thought it might be interesting to select from them what is most noteworthy as regards the bird-lore of the people, including the legends, popular notions, and proverbs relating to this subject, together with a few references to the very significant native names for many of the birds of Madagascar. I shall now proceed to do this, noticing the birds in the order of their present classification by the best ornithologists, especially that followed by Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, F.Z.S.