Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/401

 Rh the change of the year". Its various names seem to be all more or less descriptive of its note, like the name of our English species of cuckoo. This bird has the same habit as its European cousin, of laying its eggs in other birds' nests, the intruder when hatched pushing the young of the proper owner out of the nest. Several children's songs refer to the cuckoo and its injuring other birds, especially a species of Fan-tailed Warbler (Cisticola madagascariensis). Here is an example: —

The remaining bird of this group, the Tolòho or Lark-heeled Cuckoo, utters a mellow, flute-like whistle, which consists of several notes running down the scale. This bird is considered as fàdy, tabooed or sacred, by one of the principal tribes of Ménabé (W. Coast). M. Grandidicr says that, having on one occasion shot one of these birds, he was obliged, in order not to grieve the family of the chief, to leave the body of the cuckoo, which was immediately reverently buried. The reason of the extreme respect in which these Sàkalavà hold the Tolòho is as follows: "One of their ancestors, who was fearlessly swimming across the river Tsijobànina, was caught on the way by a crocodile. It is well known that these fearful reptiles do not devour their prey on the shore, but carry it to their lurking-places under or close to the water, so that it may become half putrid before being eaten there. Our hero was carried, quite senseless, to a large hole in the bank of the stream, which served as the habitual retreat of the monster, and which the ebbing tide had left partly dry. It was from this fortunate chance that the victim's head was left just above the surface of the water. Suddenly