BIRDS AND ANIMALS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



QJ. 



^ DOUBT if any islands have such 

 a counfless variety of animals 

 and flying and creeping things 

 as the Philippines. A stubby 

 variety of horses, fat and furry 

 ponies, is used in Manila and towns. 

 Oxen and a species of Buffaloes are 

 used for heavy draft purposes. The 

 mountains teem with deer. Goats, 

 Swine, Rabbits, and Sheep abound in 

 the mountains and forests in all degrees 

 of wildness. The wild hogs on Samar 

 have sometimes killed natives. There 

 are several hundred varieties of birds, 

 and about twenty that are not known 

 elsewhere. Parrots are more common 

 in the backwoods than Robins are 

 here. Among the forests close to the 

 coasts are found peculiar birds of the 

 Swallow tribe. They make a strange 

 food that the Chinese are so fond of — 

 the bird's nest. Hundreds of natives 

 earn their sole livelihood by hunting 

 at certain seasons for these birds' nests 

 and selling them to the Chinese. Of 

 Monkeys there are a dozen varieties. 

 Bats are simply enormous. They are 

 of the vampire variety. No wonder 

 there is a vast deal of superstition and 

 dread among people in the tropics 

 concerning vampires. They are 



frightfully uncanny. I have seen 

 vampire bats with bodies as large as 

 common house cats, and with wings 

 that expand five feet from tip to tip. 

 I/Ct any one be seated or strolling 

 along some moonlight night and have 

 one of those black things come sud- 

 denly swooping down past him, and 

 he will have some cause for nervous 

 prostration. I knew one of those Bats 

 to go sailing into the big hotel dining 

 room at Manila one evening when 

 dinner was serving. It came as a hor- 

 rible apparition. Some women fainted 

 and others shrieked as they went 

 under the tables. The men ran out 

 of the room. 



" The seacoast is rich in many forms 

 of fish. The natives, like the Hawaii- 

 ans, know how to catch them, too. 

 All the natives in the Philippines 

 that I ever knew about (except the rich 

 and aristocratic people in Manila) are 

 fishers. They catch a species of mul- 

 let there that is delicious. When 

 these fish come up the coast from the 

 China Sea in schools, the natives will 

 abandon any occupation and even 

 leave a sick hammock to go out and 

 angle off the coast." 



Ornithologists all over the world are 

 much interested in the great exhibition 

 of birds about to be opened at St. 

 Petersburg. It is to be an interna- 

 tional exhibition, in that it is the aim 

 to exhibit the birds native to every 

 country of the world. The czar has 

 placed himself at its head, the Russian 

 government will assist it with money 

 and influence, and the European and 



other governments which were invited 

 to take part in the project have replied 

 favorably. The exhibition has now 

 assumed such gigantic proportions 

 that it has been found necessary to 

 postpone it from the summer of this 

 year to the summer of next year to 

 allow as many rep'ons as possible on 

 the earth to be represented. 



BIRDS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE. 



Bittern, Cormorant, Cuckoo, Dove, 

 Eagle, Hawk, Heron, Kite, Lapwing, 

 Night-hawk, Osprey, Ostrich, Owl — 



little and large — Peacock, Pelican, 

 Quail, Raven, Sparrow, Stork, Swan, 

 Swallow, and Vulture. 



48 



