FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 25 



sponge fisheries in the Philippine Islands was prepared. Both 

 of these proposed acts have been or soon will be presented to the 

 legislature and if passed will be satisfactory to the fishing con- 

 cerns and fishermen themselves. They will also be comparatively 

 easy to enforce. 



SECTION OF ORNITHOLOGY AND TAXIDERMY 



The efforts of the section of ornithology and taxidermy now 

 are niainly devoted to economic ornithology; that is, the study 

 of the feeding habits of birds for the purpose of determining 

 the beneficial and the injurious species. The most important 

 part of the study of food habits includes the field work 

 of collecting specimens and the subsequent careful examination 

 of the stomach contents. The largest single collection was made 

 in Paete, Laguna, especially selected because it is in the center 

 of a large rice-growing area. Over 500 birds' stomachs have 

 been examined, and the results have been recorded on cards. 

 This number of specimens scattered unevenly among several 

 hundred species does not result in many specimens of any 

 one species; consequently there are not enough records for any 

 one species to warrant generalizations as to its food. However, 

 enough work has been done to show its importance and to 

 indicate that unexpected interrelations of organisms will be 

 discovered. A few examples are here given to show the kind 

 of results that may be expected from the intensified and com- 

 pleted study. 



One of the most abundant birds about fresh water swamps and 

 grassy borders of lakes is the moorhen, Gallinula chloropus 

 Linnaeus. The stomach of a moorhen killed at Paete, Laguna, 

 on July 3, 1915, contained 19 larvae of a tabanid fly that may very 

 easily be Tabanits striatus Fabricius, the most prevalent horsefly 

 of the Philippines, Other specimens of the moorhen also had 

 eaten tabanid larvse. Mitzmain found that this species plays 

 "a role in the transmission of surra." [See Philippine Journal 

 of Science, Section B (1913), 8, 223-229.] Therefore it seems 

 probable that the moorhen is an important agent in preventing 

 surra from becoming an uncontrolable epidemic. 



The only species of grebe (hell-diver or dabchick) inhabiting 

 the Philippine Islands is Tachybaptus philippensis (Bonnaterre). 

 Examination of five stomachs of the Philippine grebe showed that 

 two had eaten small shrimps of commercial value ; two had eaten 

 specimens of a water bug (Belastomidse).that may be injurious 

 to fish fry; and one had eaten a beetle, Cosmopolitits sordidits 

 Germar, that is injurious to banana-plant roots. This is suf- 



