i'jgi- ACCOUNT OF THE I&LAKO SAMAR. 53 



flight fingularly rapid. This bird may be diftlnguiflied 

 by a large red oblong crown, which feems to be of the 

 fame fubftance with, and, indeed, only a continuation 

 of, his bill. This ornament, added to his fize, gives 

 him a kind of majeftic air. The feathers are black, - 

 mixt with a dufky red. I had the good fortune to ob- 

 tain a very beautiful head of the ca/ao, which I had the 

 honour to prefent to the Academy of Sciences at Paris. 

 The parroquet, cockatoo, and other pretty little fpecies 

 of the fame genus, no larger than a linnet, are furprif- 

 ingly common. There is alfo found here a very fmall 

 bird, of the diminutive fize of a wafp, whofe colours, 

 confiiling in a fhade of yellow, mixed with red and 

 blue, are particularly vivid and beautiful. Many kinds 

 of monkeys, one of which is remarkably large ; roe- 

 bucks, wild buffaloes, and other quadrupedes, abound 

 in the woods. I was told a great deal concerning the 

 difference of fize, and pecuUar qualities of their fer- 

 pents ; but I confefs I faw none either fo extremely 

 large, or furprifingly fmall, as to juftify the reports of 

 the natives. 



" In thefe favoured ifles Nature feems to have been 

 providently mindful of the cloathing, as well as the 

 fubfiftence of the inhabitants. The foot of a tall fpe- 

 cies of the fig-bannan confifts in numberlefs folds of 

 bark, which, in a certain period of putrefa£lion, are fe- 

 parable without art or difficulty. Thefe, pieced toge- 

 ther, afford them a fpecies of fine linen, harfh, indeed, 

 and difagreeable to the fkin, in its natural ftate, but 

 which they have learned to render fufHciently foft and 

 pliable by a preparation of lime. Befides ferving them 

 as the materials of hnen cloth, it is likewife ufeful to 

 them for the purpofes of cordage. 



Man, in fine, is fed, cloathed, and lodged in Samar 

 at little expcnce of toil, cither in mind or body. His 

 rivers are every where fhaded with the bamboo, and his 

 [woods fupply him with the nipe and routan, two 

 Iprubs which are made to anfwer all the purpofes of 



