THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 40;; 



for the great Cocoanut-eating Crab (Birgus /"fro); it is called 

 "Tatos" at Zamboanga, and survives in Santa Cruz Major 

 because there are no Pigs in the island. Wild Pigs destroy not 

 only these Crabs, but dig up Shore-crabs (Ocypoda), and Land- 

 crabs from their holes. In Ceylon, near Trincomali, the wild 

 swine come down every night to the beach to dig up Crabs, and 

 I have seen a large tract of sandy beach which has been 

 ploughed up by them in the search. The " tatos " is searched 

 for and eaten as a delicacy in Zamboanga, 



We landed close to a Moro house built out into the sea, so 

 as to be surrounded at high water. The inhabitants were lolling 

 about in the shade, and though we offered them good pay they 

 would not go a quarter of a mile to look for " tatos " for us. At 

 last a boy consented to go as guide ; instead of searching for 

 the Crabs under the Cocoanut trees, as I had expected, we were 

 shown as the haunts of the animals hollows at the roots of 

 mangrove and other trees in swampy ground, amongst the holes 

 of ordinary Land Crabs, but we could not find the tatos. 



Von Suhm was anxious to investigate the development of 

 the Birgus from the egg. An intelligent native at Zamboanga, 

 who collected for us, said that the female Crab carries about large 

 masses of eggs with it in the month of May, and retains them 

 so attached until the young are developed, just like the parent; 

 he said the Crabs went down to the sea occasionally to drink. 



A Mound Bird (Mecfa/poditcs), is common in the island. The 

 calcareous sand amongst the bushes close to the seashore, was 

 scratched and turned over in many places by these birds in 

 burying their eggs. Our guide dug out half-a-dozen eggs, 

 closely like hens' eggs in appearance, from one of these places. 

 The eggs were buried in the clean sand, at a depth of 3J 

 or 4 feet, and w T ith no mound over them, or vegetable rub- 

 bish of any kind. The eggs are thus hatched by the simple 

 warmth of the sand received from the sun and retained during 

 the night, just in the same manner as turtles' eggs are hatched, 

 indeed, turtles' e^s mi^ht have been found in the same hole. 

 It was mid-day, and the surface sand was hot, far hotter than 

 the sand below, where the eggs lay, which felt as well as the 

 eggs distinctly cool to the touch. I had always supposed that 



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