. Three voyages of a naturalist, being an account of many little- known islands in three oceans visited by the "Valhalla," ; . rable distance the tracklay between rows of tall trees, the branches of whichalmost met overhead. In this forest we saw aflock of Guinea fowls* which, being surprised at abend in the track, took to flight close ahead of thetram. At some distance from the camp the tramlines came to an end, and the rest of the journeyhad to be performed in a large two-wheeled waggondrawn by mules, which brought us, after an hourshard pulling, to our destination. We were metby the c
. Three voyages of a naturalist, being an account of many little- known islands in three oceans visited by the "Valhalla," ; . rable distance the tracklay between rows of tall trees, the branches of whichalmost met overhead. In this forest we saw aflock of Guinea fowls* which, being surprised at abend in the track, took to flight close ahead of thetram. At some distance from the camp the tramlines came to an end, and the rest of the journeyhad to be performed in a large two-wheeled waggondrawn by mules, which brought us, after an hourshard pulling, to our destination. We were metby the colonel commanding the camp, who con-ducted us to the hotel where rooms had beenordered. Camp dAmbre is a convalescent station,and aU soldiers suffering from fever are sent thereto recuperate. The camp consists of barracks^officers quarters, and a small, but clean and well-managed hotel. The surroundings are verybeautiful. In front the hill slopes abruptly, allow-ing a distant view of Diego Suarez. On both sidesthe country is covered with grass, while in the rearlies the Foret dAmbre—a splendid virgin forest * Numida FORET da3IBRE, MADAGASCAR. [95] BLACK PARROTS 95 stretching for four hundred miles into the interiorof Madagascar. As soon as we had lunched we set off, underthe guidance of one of the officers who was a keenentomologist, to explore a strip of forest in a smallvalley near the camp. Every valley in thisneighbourhood was filled with luxuriant vegetation,while the sides and summits of the hills werecovered with good pasture. In this particularvalley a path led from the camp to a patch ofcultivated ground, which was about half an hourswalk below us. The forest was full of birds, butthey were not easy to see, on account of the heightof the trees and the thick foliage. As we walkeddown, I saw a small hawk, much like a sparrow-hawk, sitting on a branch of one of the trees, and,on shooting it, I found it was Astur franciscoe,a species which is peculiar to Madaga
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