TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number],and the footnotes have been placed at the end of each chapter.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.These are indicated by a dashed blue underline.
The stone is levered into position closing the opening. A deep fosse or ditchsurrounding the village completes its fortification. The man in front is carryingtwo packages secured to a pole in the usual manner of the country
A NATURALIST
IN MADAGASCAR
A Record of Observation Experiences and
Impressions made during a period of over Fifty Years’
Intimate Association with the Natives and Study of the
Animal & Vegetable Life of the Island
BY
JAMES SIBREE, F.R.G.S.
Membre de l’Academie Malgache
AUTHOR OF “THE GREAT AFRICAN ISLAND,” “MADAGASCAR ORNITHOLOGY,”
&c., &c., &c.
WITH 52 ILLUSTRATIONS & 3 MAPS
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
LONDON: SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LTD.
1915
Dedicated
WITH MUCH AFFECTION TO
MY DEAR WIFE
MY CONSTANT COMPANION IN MADAGASCAR
AND FAITHFUL HELPER IN ALL
MY WORK FOR FORTY-
FOUR YEARS
THE title of this book may perhaps be considered bysome as too ambitious, and may provoke comparisonwith others somewhat similar in name, but with whosedistinguished authors I have no claim at all to compete.
I have no tales to tell of hair-breadth escapes from savagebeasts, no shooting of “big game,” no stalking of elephant orrhinoceros, of “hippo” or giraffe. We have indeed no biggame in Madagascar. The most dangerous sport in its woodsis hunting the wild boar; the largest carnivore to be met withis the fierce little fòsa, and the crocodile is the most dangerousreptile.
But I ask the courteous reader to wander with me into thewonderful and mysterious forests, and to observe the gentlelemurs in their home, as they leap from tree to tree, or takerefuge in the thickets of bamboo; to come out in the dusk andwatch the aye-aye as he stealthily glides along the branches,obtaining his insect food under the bark of the trees; to listento the song of numerous birds, and to note their habits andcurious ways; to hear the legends and folk-tales in which theMalagasy have preserved the wisdom of their ancestors with