Menage Expedition to the Philippines 151 



soon established. Our first work was to care for four specimens 

 of Tragulus obtained at Balabac while the boat stopped. We 

 secured in all seven specimens, of which we now have three in 

 the form of skins and four as skeletons. They were all obtained 

 by exchange, we giving a few ordinary but brightly-colored birds 

 for them. We were very fortunate in obtaining these specimens, 

 as this little deer does not exist in Palawan and we were unable 

 to stop at Balabac beyond the usual halt of the boat. 



The month of December was spent here in town, collecting 

 all the birds we could get. We were very successful, as we 

 obtained 550 specimens, of which we used in exchange for vari- 

 ous things, probably fifty. 



This month we have also obtained some birds, so that in 

 all we have something over 600 specimens, of 99 species. Of 

 these 25 were not obtained by us on our first trip, but we now 

 fail to get eleven that we previously captured. Most of these 

 however are water birds of wide range and little value. The 

 only valuable birds that we know of, not in our present collec- 

 tion, are two hornbills. We were fortunate in getting a very 

 fine specimen of Polyplectron napoleonis, or, as it is called here, 

 the *'royal peacock.' On our previous trip we were unable to 

 obtain a single specimen, while now we have at least a dozen 

 males in fine plumage and an equal number of females. The 

 male of this species is probably the most showy bird found in 

 the Philippines. Among other rare birds obtained are, Aetho- 

 pygia Shelleyi, Arachuthera dilutior, Prionochilus Johannae, Zeo- 

 cephus cyaneiceps, Tiga Everetti. As to new birds, we cannot 

 write definitely as our list is incomplete, lacking some thirty spe- 

 cies. We have one bird from the mountains that interests us 

 greatly. It is a small, nearly tailless, brush or ground bird and 

 the single specimen we have was caught in a lasso set for the 

 royal peacock. 



At the end of the first month's work, having a good set of 

 birds of the island, we set out for other parts, to follow up re- 

 ports that were brought us of a mountain goat and a very large 

 monkey. We also hoped to be able to get more of the mammals 

 of the island than we could get by staying in town. So on New 

 Year's day we started, in company with a Spanish friend and a 

 number of Tagbanna (native) carriers, for a small settlement 

 named Tagbaroos, situated about ten miles up the coast and 



