While staying near the forest I occasionally saw and had brought to me specimens of some of the land-shells which are often found in damp places in the woods. Many years ago more than two hundred of these were known, and this number has probably been considerably added to since, and will still be increased as the country becomes more perfectly explored. Of non-operculate species about eighty were then described, of operculate species about fifty, and about fifty forms had been recorded from the lakes and rivers. The largest of these shells is a species of _Helix_ (_bicingulata_), warm brown in colour, with diaper-like markings, flattish in shape, and three inches in its longest diameter. There are several other smaller _helices_; also examples of _Cyclostoma_, the opening of which, as the name implies, is almost a perfect circle; species of _Ampullaria_, which have a very large opening; _Stenogyra_, a long oval and spiral shell; dark green _Melanatria_, a large spiral shell like _Turritella_, three inches long, which I have gathered in forest streams; while the most delicately marked shells are species of _Neritina_, with black lines, like fine etchings, on a pale yellow ground. Species of _Bultimus_, also a beautifully marked shell, and of _Limnea_, _Physa_, _Phanorbis_, and many others are among the fluviatile and terrestrial mollusca of Madagascar. [Illustration: CHAMELEON MINOR. Madagascar is one of the head-quarters of the Chameleonidæ, for out of fifty known species twenty-one at least are found in this island.] In walking through the woods one constantly comes across traces of the wild boar, or, more properly, the river-hog (_Potamochærus larvatus_), although the animal itself is rarely seen. It is a somewhat ugly creature, with high withers, long back and little hair. It has an enormous tubercle, supported by a bony protuberance in the jaw, which renders the face of the animal extremely disagreeable. It must exist in large numbers, for it digs up the ground in search of roots and often does much damage to plantations. The hunting of the wild boar is a favourite sport with the Malagasy of certain districts, and Europeans who have joined in the hunt have found it an exciting sport, with a distinct element of danger, for the beast, when infuriated, is a formidable animal from its long and powerful tusks. Some naturalists are of opinion that there are two distinct species of this river-hog, one found in the upper forest, and the other on the coast and the lower forest region; of these, the latter is the larger animal. [Sidenote: SUN-BIRDS]