Birds of the Philipjnne Islands. 461 



The west-coast range would be much drier in October to 

 February during the north-east monsoon, but much more 

 difficult to reach unless a special steamer were to be chartered. 

 The mountain on the east side is perhaps over 8000 feet, but 

 the ranges are mostly from 5000 to 6000 feet. I was 

 guided by the natives to a part that attained nearly 6000 

 feet, but we could not reach the rest of the mountain 

 from this position. The weather^ as I have told you already, 

 was too bad for anything. There is no open land in Min- 

 doro, which is an island covered with dense forest, very 

 different from Luzon, which is comparatively thinly wooded. 

 The undergrowth is very dense, and without cutting paths 

 impossible to get through. Between 4500 feet and nearly 

 6000 feet we only obtained 20 species of birds, though, no 

 doubt, there were others we did not see.^' 



Some idea of the difficulties under which the Mindoro 

 collection of birds has been made may be gathered from 

 reading the above, and it seems almost incredible that such 

 perfect skins as those before me can have been prepared under 

 such adverse circumstances. The gems of the present col- 

 lection are the great Fruit-Pigeon {Carpophaga mindorensis) , 

 already mentioned, allied to the much smaller C. radiata 

 from Celebes; and a beautiful new "Blackbird" [Turdus 

 mindorensis) with the middle of the breast and belly pure 

 white and the sides and flanks bright chestnut-red. There 

 is also a new Hawk-Owl. A good many of the birds obtained 

 are identical with those previously discovered by Mr. White- 

 head in the highlands of Luzon, and a number of others 

 peculiar to Mindoro have been already described by previous 

 collectors. It seems curious that the Blackbird of Mindoro 

 should be entirely difierent from that discovered in Luzon, 

 when so much of the highland fauna of the two islands appears 

 to be identical. 



In addition to the bird-collection, a few small mammals, 

 chiefly rats, were collected ; some having been obtained in 

 the neighbourhood of the camp at an elevation of 5000 feet. 

 There is also a bat, which will probably prove to be very 

 interesting, but Mr. Oldfield Thomas has not yet had time 



