With regard to the paucity of insect life in the forest, I think it has been clearly shown by eminent naturalists like Dr Wallace and the late Mr Bates, that _dense_ wood is not favourable to such life; but that in open spaces in the forest, where sunshine can penetrate, and where there is also water, there is where you may hope to find butterflies, moths, and various handsome flies, bees and wasps; while patches of cleared forest and felled trees are the most favourable hunting-grounds for the numerous species of beetle and also of ants. In travelling from the east coast to Imèrina seventeen years later than this journey, on a route about eighty miles north of that described in this chapter, we found numerous butterflies, a dozen species at least, in some localities; and the voice of birds was heard all along the road, the noisy call of the _Kankàfotra_ cuckoo, _kow-kow, kow-kow_, constantly repeated; the mellow flute-like call of another cuckoo, the _Tolòho_, whose notes we heard all the way from Màhanòro; the chirp and whistle of the _Railòvy_, or king-crow, as well as the incessant twitter of many smaller birds. Then came frequently the wailing notes of the lemurs high up among the trees. This, however, was in November, when the hot season was advancing. [Sidenote: PROTECTIVE COLOURING] In our walks in the forest from the Ankèramadìnika Sanatorium (Chapters VIII. and IX.), we saw, it will be remembered, many cases of protective colouring. As we are again in the eastern forests, the following instances may also be noted. There is found in these woods a curious walking-stick mantis, about eight inches long and a quarter of an inch thick. It is exactly the colour of a dried branchlet or twig, with joints distinctly articulated like the nodes of many plants. The tail (if the end of the creature may be thus called) is rather more than an inch long, and is a hollow, canoe-shaped trough, somewhat resembling part of the bark torn off a twig. The legs are alate and spiny. At about two inches from the head are the wings and wing-sheaths, the latter being somewhat like obovate stipules about half-an-inch long, and the former marked with black and yellow and about an inch and a half long. When the wings are closed, it would take a very keen eye to discover the creature, as the part of the wing when closed is of the same colour as the rest of the body. The legs can be brought together lengthwise in front, and so appear to form a continuous part of the twig, especially as the femurs are hollowed out to form a socket for the head.