THE CICADA
Although in the cold season, which was the time of our journey, the woods were very silent, they are not so at all times of the year, and among the sounds of the forest we must not omit one which, once heard, can never be forgotten—viz. the extremely shrill piercing note of the Jorèry, a cicada, which makes the woods ring again with its stridulous reverberations. If it should happen that two or three of these little creatures are giving out their sound together, the jarring, ringing noise becomes almost painful to the ear; and it is difficult to believe that such a loud noise can be produced from the friction of the wing-cases of such a comparatively small insect, for it does not exceed an inch and a half in length.
On rainy nights a stridulous sound, but far less loud than that produced by the jorèry, is heard in and near the forest, and is produced by a large species of earthworm called Kànkandoròka. It somewhat resembles the noise of a rattle, and is far from unpleasant to the ear.
THE SILENCE OF THE WOOD
Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that these comparatively silent woods are destitute of animal life, and the stillness is largely attributable to the peculiar character of the Madagascar fauna. Many of the lemurs are nocturnal animals and are therefore not seen or heard in the daytime. Then again, the twenty-four species of centetidæ are burrowing animals, and so do not often appear in the open. And it is much the same with the sixteen species of rats and mice, which live in the woods and on their borders. In confirmation of the above remarks as to the animal life of the forest, it may be stated that in the latter part of the year 1894, and the beginning of 1895, Dr Forsyth Major, the eminent naturalist and palæontologist, lived for several months collecting in the woods not very far from the route we followed about eighteen years previously; and his specimens of recent mammals amounted to no fewer than sixteen hundred specimens, which added twenty species to those previously known. These were chiefly in the tenrecs and the rats, but also included a new species of lemur. Some of these forms were exceptionally interesting, one being aquatic and web-footed; and others showed transitions from a hairy to a spiny condition in closely allied animals, suggesting that the prickly state had been gradually attained for purposes of defence. Several of the centetidæ, of the genus Oryzorictes, feed largely on rice, as their generic name denotes, and do much damage to the crops. This is equally true of the indigenous rats and mice. We have seen how the forest and coast Malagasy protect their rice stores by elevated houses, with special precautions against these little marauders.
It should be added that Dr Major’s unprecedentedly large collections would probably have been larger still but for the disturbed state of the country at that time. It was during the early months of the French invasion and subsequent conquest of Madagascar, when the feeling against all Europeans was very strong; so that again and again Dr Major was in considerable danger of his life. Besides adding so largely to our knowledge of the living fauna of the island, he made large collections of the sub-fossil fauna, in collections of the remains of the extinct æpyornis, hippopotami, tortoises, crocodiles, and other animals, finding bones of several of the smaller mammals which he afterwards discovered to be still living.
A Woman of the Antànkàrana Tribe N.W. Madagascar
She is in full gala costume
Woman of Antanòsy Tribe, S.E. Madagascar
She is got up in all her finery