Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/400

 344  listened attentively; the cries which met his ears were approaching nearer. Doubtless a babbling and restless crowd of them was perched on a neighbouring tree. 'But there are no parrots in the other world,' thought our hero; 'I am not dead!' He took courage, and freeing himself by a tremendous effort from the layer of earth which covered his body, he perceived the bright shining of the sun, in whose rays the parrots were sporting in the trees around him. Hope revived within him, and he made his way, not without difficulty, to his village, where, after the needful care and nursing, he eventually recovered strength. In thankfulness to the birds whose cries had roused him from his torpor, and given him courage to free himself from his tomb, he solemnly vowed for himself and his descendants to the latest generation, that they would never kill parrots."

Most of the names by which these birds are known appear to be imitative of their harsh cry; while some of those by which the Madagascar Parrakeet is known mean "degenerated", or "become small", the people apparently holding the strange notion that it is a dwarfed species of parrot.

There are no less than fourteen species of Cuckoo found in Madagascar, of which twelve belong to a genus, Coua, peculiar to the island, and are among those numerous birds which give a special character to its avi-fauna. Of the Blue Coua, the people say that when its cry is heard the day will be wet and drizzly. Several of these birds' names are descriptive of their habits, as "Road-crosser", "Climber", and "Shell-breaker".

The most common bird of this family is the Kankàfotra, or Grey-headed Cuckoo, which comes up into the higher interior region as the warm season approaches, and its monotonous but not unpleasing cry of kow-kow, kow-kow, may be heard wherever there are trees, all day long. The Malagasy make its arrival a signal for clearing their ground for planting the later crop of rice; in some native Haintèny or "oratorical adornments" the Kankafotra is said to manòva ny tanoa, i.e., "to change", or rather, "to announce