Menage Expedition to the Philippines 149 



well in this respect before, either on our former trip or on this 

 one. Our nearest approach was in 1888 in Samar, where five of 

 us recorded eighty-five species in one month. Samar, like Tawi 

 Tawi, had not been previously visited. 



Wild hogs are so abundant as to give us fresh meat nearly 

 every day. Deer are entirely wanting. In this respect Tawi 

 Tawi differs from Sulu, Basilan and the northern and central 

 islands, and resembles Balabac and Palawan. The difference 

 is difficult to account for. 



I now come to the curious mammal of which I enclose de- 

 scription. Shortly before we left for Tawi Tawi the Jesuit priest 

 here, Padre Marche, informed us that just before our arrival 

 he had made a trip to Tawi Tawi, and had bought of the Moros 

 there a curious animal. He said it had the face of a bear, the 

 hands of a monkey, moved like a sloth, and was called "cocam" 

 by the natives. He sent it as a gift to Padre Sanchez, the priest 

 in charge of the Jesuit museum, in connection wnth the college 

 at Manila. I believe nothing of this kind has been found in the 

 Philippines before, and it makes an important addition to the 

 rather meager list of Philippine mammals. It is evidently one of 

 the Lemuridae, but as generic characteristics are not given m 

 the book I have, I cannot go farther. 



I am very sure the creature is nocturnal. We had a hard 

 time to get a single specimen, but I have got track of a place 

 where it is abundant. We expect to return to Tawi Tawi, and 

 may obtain additional specimens. I partially skinned the si)ec- 

 imen we have and then preserved it bodily in alcohol, so that . 

 the skin can be saved and an anatomical study made if desirable " 



Thursday, November 26, i8oj. 

 We find it impossible to reach Cagayan de Sulu at this time, 

 as the steamer stopped there coming down, and will not do so 

 going back. We can however reach 'this island readily and more 

 cheaply from North Borneo, later on, .so it will make no dif- 

 ference in the end. 



We shall arrive in Manila a month sooner than I expected 

 unless the Calamianes should prove rich enough to warrant a 

 two months' stop. I shall probably write next from Manila. 



•Description publislied in Zoologischen Anzeiger, No. 389, 1892, by Henry 

 F. Nachtrieb. 



