144 Menage Expedition to the Philippines 



of friendly Moros with us, and to confine ourselves pretty strictly 

 to one region in our hunting. We found on our arrival here that 

 the Moros were not nearly so well provided with firearms as 

 we had been informed, and that they were as a rule very poor 

 marksmen. We also found that their repvited regard for English- 

 men was strictly confined to unarmed Englishmen, that they 

 were crazy to get hold of firearms, and would kill a man of any 

 nationality for a gun. So we have gone in fighting order. We 

 had little to fear from an open attack, but they could easily hide 

 in the woods and shoot us at short range. 



Our instructions from the Governor were brief and sig- 

 nificant: "If you meet an armed Moro, order him to put down 

 his arms and retire. If he does not instantly comply, shoot him." 

 Our usual good luck has stood by us however, and we have 

 confined ourselves, in our shooting, to natural history specimens. 



The Spanish authorities have been very kind, giving us all 

 possible aid in our work, and in spite of difficulties, the results 

 have been very satisfactory. Before leaving home I compiled 

 a list of Sulu birds, but could find only twenty-seven recorded. 

 Immediately on our arrival I began to make inquiries as to 

 whether other naturalists had been here. I finally heard of a 

 person who was here in 1886. Whether my list includes the 

 results of his work I cannot tell. If it does, we have added fifty- 

 eight species to the birds known from the island. There is no 

 virgin forest however within a day's journey of town, and it 

 is simply out of the question for us to go farther away than that. 

 As it is we have had one or two close shaves. On October ist 

 ten Moros are reported to have laid an ambush for us on 

 the path we had always taken before. By the merest chance 

 we went another way that day, and they caught a Tartar in the 

 shape of a lot of soldiers, who were out hunting for some 

 cattle that had been stolen the night before. Last Saturday we 

 caught sight of a single Moro sneaking up on us with a rifle. 

 He sprang into the high grass the instant he saw we had dis- 

 covered him, and made his escape. 



;lc ^ i\c 5K 'fi >!' 'i^ 



We have a greajt puzzle in the small blue kingfishers of the 

 genus Ceyx from this place. They vary from the form with 

 indigo-blue back to the form with silvery-white back and not 

 a vestige of blue about it. One seeing only the two extremes 



