flock of crows near us. For a few seconds there was a dead silence, and then all the others filled the air with hoarse cries and came dashing round us so closely that I feared they would injure our eyes, so angry did they seem with those who had killed their companion. One of the most beautiful birds to be seen is the _Vintsy_, or kingfisher, of lovely purplish-blue, with yellow and buff breast and belly. With short blunt tail and long beak, it may be seen perched on the rushes or other aquatic plants, or darting over the streams and marshes, flying in a curious jerking manner, like a flash of purple light, pursuing the insects which form its food. From what has been already said about rice-culture it may be easily understood that it occupies a large amount of the time and attention of the Malagasy. The digging and preparation of the ground; the sowing in the _kètsa_ plots; the uprooting of the young plants; the planting, by the women, of these again in the soft mud of the rice-fields; the bringing of water, often from a long distance, to the fields, and the repairing of the water-courses; the weeding of the rice-fields; and, finally, the cutting, the threshing, the bringing home, and the drying and storing of the rice—all this bulks largely in their daily life through a good deal of the year. Rice is the staff of life to the Malagasy, and they cannot understand how Europeans can make a proper meal without it. _Mihìnam-bàry_, “to eat rice,” is the native equivalent for the Eastern phrase, “to eat bread”; they eat other things of course—manioc root, a little meat or fish, and various vegetables, but these are only _laoka_ or accompaniments to the staple food. The Malagasy have a saying, when speaking of things which are inseparable, that they are “like rice and water.” And when we remember that rice is sown on water, that it is transplanted in water, that it grows still in water, that it is reaped in water, that it is usually carried by water, in canoes, that it is boiled in water, and that water is generally the only beverage with which it is eaten, it will be seen that there is much force in the comparison. [Sidenote: ARTICLES OF FOOD]