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. [Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE ANTÀNKÀRANA TRIBE N.W. MADAGASCAR She is in full gala costume] [Illustration: WOMAN OF ANTANÒSY TRIBE, S.E. MADAGASCAR She is got up in all her finery] [Sidenote: BIRD LIFE IN MADAGASCAR] With regard to the silence of the wood just spoken of, and the apparent dearth of animal life, it must be remembered that, in addition to the character of the mammalian fauna above-mentioned, our journey was made in the cold season, when all life is much less in evidence. As we have seen in the chapters VIII. and IX., speaking of the forest, it is by no means destitute of bird life during the warm months of the year. And yet I have never been able satisfactorily to account for the _comparative_ fewness of birds in Madagascar, notwithstanding the number of species. It can hardly be from want of appropriate food, for the great variety of trees and shrubs must surely supply sufficient in the way of fruits and berries and seeds, to say nothing of caterpillars, and insects in various stages of development. My friend, Mr Cory, an enthusiastic naturalist and sportsman, wrote to me: “I think the want of bird life in Madagascar is very marked when compared with England, and I was much struck with this on my first arrival. I have been in the forest at all times of the year; and although there _are_ a good many birds in summer, yet if you try bird’s-nesting here, you will soon find out how few and far between the nests are.” I have sometimes thought that these facts may be partly explained by the rather large proportion of rapacious birds in Madagascar to the general air-fauna—twenty-two, as compared with two hundred and ten species known to inhabit the island; for, leaving out the twenty-eight species of oceanic birds, we have nearly a seventh of the birds belonging to rapacious kinds, a proportion which would be still greater if we reckon, as we might well do, several of the eight species of shrikes as rapacious. As we shall see in the next chapter, there appear to be a far larger number of birds on the western side of the island than are found in the eastern forests.