Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/412

356 the north-western Sàkalàva, as they believe it brings them rain in very dry weather, so they will not kill it. Among the birds of this Order are two species classed by M. Grandidier in a distinct family, and termed Mesitinæ; he speaks of them as "very curious and specialised birds, taking their place between the Rails and the Herons". He says further, that, according to the native accounts, when the nests of these Mesites, which are mostly placed in a low situation, are flooded, the parent birds drag them to where they will be free from injury by the water. If any one takes their young, they follow them into the village, and on account of this love for their offspring, they are considered sacred (fàdy) by the Bètsimisàraka, because, say the natives, they are in this like human beings.

VII.—The four families into which the Order of is divided are all represented in Madagascar, and include five-and-twenty species belonging to the true Herons, the Storks, the Spoonbills and Ibises, and the Flamingoes. Of these birds, more than half the number (fourteen) belong to one genus, the herons, which is thus the most numerously represented genus in the island.

The most common of the herons, as well as perhaps the most noticeable bird one sees when travelling in any part of Madagascar, is the White-egret, or Voròmpòtsy, i.e. "White-bird". Wherever herds of cattle are feeding, there it will be seen in numbers proportionate to those of the oxen. These animals it follows, to feed upon the ticks which infest their skin and torment them incessantly. One may often see these egrets perched on the back of the oxen, and thus clearing them of their tormentors. It is, therefore, not surprising that such useful birds are venerated by the Malagasy, so that they cannot see one of them shot by foreigners without extreme displeasure, and they would think it a kind of sacrilege were they themselves to chase or injure them. Some of this egret's names refer to its habit of following the cattle, as Vòrouaòmby, "Ox-bird",