154 Menage Expedition to the Philippines 



are short and the feet are armed with long claws for digging, 

 the claws of the front feet being much the longer. The eyes 

 are small, the ears inconspicuous and the tail almost lacking. 

 The snout is very like that of a pig, and from what the natives 

 say, the animal gets its living in much the same way as does 

 the pig. The most noticeable feature of the peculiar animal I 

 have not yet described nor can I. It is the odor, and it is for- 

 tunate that I cannot so describe it that you can get an idea of 

 what it is. It is powerful and comes from the liquid contained 

 in two small sacs placed just under the bones of the rudimentary 

 tail. The natives here say that this animal, with its powerful 

 odor, has driven out of the island both the deer and the little 

 Tragulus. This of course is a mere superstition, as we know 

 that both Tragulus and the pantut exist in Balabac. Most of the 

 specimens that we have were caught in lassos. 



6. The ''manturong," of which we have a single specimen. 

 This also we are unable to classify. The body is covered with 

 coarse hair of a dark gray color. Eyes dark and bright, ears 

 tufted and small, tail long and very broad at base. The head 

 resembles that of a raccoon. Unfortunately the animal had 

 broken off most of the front teeth, so that we could not get a 

 good idea of the dentition. 



7. A rare specimen of the melu (Paradoxurus philippinensis). 

 We have specimens from most of the islands visited. Here we 

 have obtained one that differs from all others we have seen in 

 being pure black, the color usually being brownish. 



Of most of these animals we have a good number of spec- 

 imens. Also we have alcoholic specimens of ilie whole animal, 

 or of parts of it. 



The only animal of importance we feel sure exists here, which 

 we did not get, is a species of cat which, from the description giv- 

 en us, is very much like the one we obtained in Panay and Negros. 



As already mentioned, stories were told us of the existence 

 of two other animals, a mountain goat or, as they called it, 

 ''manda rata," and a large monkey or *'pakduh/' and it was to 

 prove or disprove these stories that we put in the last week of 

 our time here. The whole country round about is mountainous, 

 the highest peak near Puerto Princesa being called Pulgar. The 

 Spaniards in the town informed us that the mountain had 

 never been climbed and was inaccessible, that various atttempts 



