Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/409

Rh and remote relationships. The zoological affinities of this remarkable bird were for a long time a puzzle to ornithologists, who successively placed it among or near the Toucans, the Hornbills, the Swallows, the Crows, the Starlings, and the Speckled Pies. It is, however, so different from any other family that a special one has been formed for its reception (Eurycerotidæ), of which this bird is the solitary genus and species. The Euryceros is remarkable for a beak formed like a very capacious helmet, which is considerably larger than the skull. It is about the size of a starling, velvety black in colour, and with a saddle-shaped patch of light brown on the back.

IV.—The and some few allied birds form, in Mr. R. B. Sharpe's classification, an Order of themselves, and include the extinct Dodos, of which five species at least lived in the Mascarene Islands until within the last 250 years, but no remains have yet been found in Madagascar itself.

Of the four species of pigeon known in Madagascar, their names are chiefly descriptive. One, however, has the strange appellation of Tsiàzotonònina, i.e., "Unspeakable", or "Unmentionable", among the Tanàla or forest tribes, possibly because its more common name of Katòto had become tabooed or sacred through having formed part of the name of one of their chiefs. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that this other name is said to belong to "a bird of bad omen." Mr. Cowan says, speaking of the Bàra country: "The Katòto is tabooed or sacred here, even to its name, so it is spoken of as the Tsi-tonònina ('Not-to-be-mentioned'). It is a remarkable fact that most, if not all, of the birds common to Eastern Africa and Madagascar are sacred, or regarded with a kind of superstitious fear. Of these the Katòto, the tufted umber, the owl, etc., are examples."

V.—The fifth Order, that of the Gallinæ or, has a few representatives in Madagascar, of which the