140 Menage Expedition to the Philippines 



will be lonesome without company, the nearest male relative 

 arms himself, starts out, and kills the first person he meets, black 

 or white. Fortunately the health of the community was good 

 during our stay. Our friends strongly advised us to take along 

 a few soldiers, for the moral effect upon the people, but as we 

 considered that the moral effect would be to make them think 

 we were afraid of them, we deemed it not best to do so. We had, 

 as guides, our host and his son, and experienced no trouble what- 

 ever with the savages, though on numerous occasions while hunt- 

 ing in the forest we met parties of them fully armed with their 

 knives and spears. After two weeks of work in this place we 

 returned to the plantation, again being furnished with carriers 

 by our friend Senor Montenegro. The next two or three days 

 were spent in arranging and packing our collections. On Jan- 

 uary 30th we left Bai-s for Dumaguete, which place we left two 

 days later for Siquija. 



During our stay in the mountains we were able to work to 

 the best possible advantage, the forest being near at hand and 

 our guides familiar with all parts of it. 



We obtained 285 birds, of 69 species, 12 of these being new 

 to Negros, and two of the 12 new to us. The first day out we 

 were fortunate enough to obtain a sunbird of the genus Aetho- 

 pygia (Aethopygia bonita, Bourns and Wore ) which has cer- 

 tainly never been described. It is one of the smallest and most 

 brilliantly colored of the Philippine sunbirds. As it feeds in high 

 trees it was very difficult to shoot. Careful and persistent work 

 during our entire stay brought three male and two female spec- 

 imens. This find was a surprise, as the sunbirds are much sought 

 after by collectors on aiccount of their brilliant plumage, and 

 the chance of discovering new birds belonging to the family is 

 very small. 



Our other new bird is a kingfisher of the genus Ceyx, of 

 which we have as yet but a single specimen, a female. Its pe- 

 culiarities are small size and high color. We also found in 

 Negros the small Ceyx discovered in Panay, though it was 

 by no means as abundant as in that island. We were fortunate 

 also in obtaining four specimens of the cat described in our 

 previous letter. Of the four, two, a male and a female, are 

 adult, one is two-thirds grown and one a kitten. 



In one respect we have been particularly unfortunate during 



