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VIII. On the Mammals obtained by Mr. John Whitehead during his recent Expedition 

 to the Philippines. By Oldfield Thomas. With Field-notes by the Collector. 



Eeceived May 19, 1897, read June 15, 1897. 



[Plates XXX.-XXXVI.] 



Mr. JOHN WHITEHEAD, whose exploration of Mount Kina Bala has already 

 rendered him famous as a collector, has during the last three years been engaged in the 

 exploration of the islands of the Philippine group, partly at his own expense, and 

 partly at that of the " subscribers to the Whitehead Fund," to whose generosity the 

 National Museum owes the donation of the whole of the specimens that the subscribers 

 had a claim to under Mr. Whitehead's agreement with them. 



As the exploration has been so remarkably successful, it is only fitting that an 

 acknowledgment of their generosity should be appended to this account of the 

 Mammals obtained during the expedition. Their names are as follows : — Messrs. 

 Matthew, James, and Andrew Arthur, the Duke of Bedford, Major "Cooper Cooper, 

 the late Mr. Alexander Dennistoun, Mr. John Dennistoun, the late Lady Huntingtower, 

 the late Mr. Henry Seebohm, Mr. J. G.. Sandeman, and Mr. J. T. Thomasson. 



The Philippine Islands, however rich in birds, have always previously been looked 

 upon as a group very poor in Mammals, especially in comparison with the rich faunas 

 of the other islands of the East Indian Archipelago. This poverty was particularly 

 evident in regard to really peculiar indigenous Mammals ; for, with the exception of 

 Phloeomys eumingi, scarcely a Mammal was known from the group other than 

 members of widely-distributed genera, of which the Philippine species were either 

 identical with or closely allied to Palawan, Bornean, or Celebean forms. 



Little, therefore, could have been expected from the expedition further than the 

 discovery of a few fresh species of genera known to inhabit the group, and this, so far 

 as regards the islands other than Luzon, is just what has occurred. But in the great 

 northern island of the group Mr. Whitehead has made a most wonderful and un- 

 expected discovery, that of a new and peculiar Mammal-fauna inhabiting the Luzon 

 highlands, and, so far as is yet known, mostly isolated on a small plateau on the 

 top of Monte Data, in the centre of Northern Luzon, at an altitude of from 7000 to 

 8000 feet. 



vol. xiv. — 1'akt vi. No. 1. — June, 1898. b' d 



