Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/761

Rh resting on the ground. No other example of a plantigrade animal is known.

The masked wild-boar, which is still more ugly than its European fellow, is the only mammifer met with both in Madagascar and Africa. It is a hideous creature, with high withers, low back, and little hair. It boasts of an enormous tubercle, supported by a bony prominence in the jaw, which renders the face of the animal extremely disagreeable. A species of gray squirrel, which lives in hollow trees, and bats, complete the list of the mammifers yet known in Madagascar.

It is very different as regards birds; they can cross immense spaces; and so the tern, the petrel, the albatross, and many other well-known birds, abound in this island. It is a charming sight, on a sunny day, to see flights of ducks with brilliant and varied plumage paddling and diving on the rivers or lakes. One large species, with bronze and violet reflections, like metals, its white head and neck spotted with black, is a great favorite with the natives. A beautiful teal-duck, only known here, has an exquisite blending of brown, fawn, and slate-colored plumage, with fair white wings. In the marshes stalks the proud sultana-hen, with its magnificent blue body, a red patch on its head, and coral feet adorned with a tuft of white feathers, by which it is easily distinguished among the reeds. The jacana, a bird of the water-hen family, is also peculiar to this place; mounted on long legs like stilts, and extremely long feet, it runs through the long grass, or upon the floating water-leaves, with wonderful rapidity.

The sacred ibis of the Egyptians is found in large flocks, as well as the green variety of Europe. The crested ibis is peculiar to the country; a beautiful bird, bright-red, with yellow beak and claws; a green head, from which the long plume of white and green feathers lies back. Another bird, classed among the Gallinaceæ, is remarkable for the length of its beak; while the pretty blue and green pigeons afford plenty of sport for the lover of the gun. Near the streams, the nelicourvi, a green-plumaged bird, builds its nest among the leaves, composed of bits of straw and reeds artistically woven together. The magnificent cardinal, in its bright scarlet robe of feathers, black-spotted on the back, haunts the open glades of the forest; and on the banks of streams are numbers of linnets, wagtails, and humming-birds, which are almost as small and graceful as the American ones, in addition to possessing all their beauties. The one which is the most common is also the most beautiful, with its bright-green body shaded with violet; the large feathers of the wings, brown-edged, with a violet band on the breast, succeeded by one of brown; and yellow beneath. The family of cuckoos is well represented; the blue variety is a magnificent bird, common in the woods on the shore.

As for the reptile class, it is pleasant for the traveler to walk through the forests knowing that the venomous species are unknown.