34^ THE riTILIPPlNE ISLANDS. 



Our object in visiting Santa Cruz Major Island was to search 

 for the great Cocoa-nut eating Crab {Birgus latro) ; 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 Cocoa-nut 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 

 hni 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 — that is to say, of course, to moisten their breathing 

 apparatus. 



A Mound Bird {Megapodius) 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 3? or 4 

 feet, and had no mound over them, nor vegetable rubbish 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' eggs might 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 

 all these birds and their allies hatched their eggs by means of 

 the heat derived from decayed vegetable matter. 



We shot a small Cuckoo, with a beautiful greenish golden 

 metallic lustre on its feathers {Centrococcyx viridis), in the 



