58 
'I he Queensland Naturalist. 
Jan . 1926* 
bhee)> ai*e occasionally met with, but are not common. 
The commonest beast of burden is the buffalo. This- 
animal is exceptionally docile under native management, 
but lias a ^reat antipathy for a white man. Albinoes are 
fairly common, but are not worth as much as the brown 
or black ones, because they are regarded as being liable* 
to liglitning stroke. Buffalo milk is very rich, but milk 
of any sort is not used much by the Filipinos, though a 
dairy in Manila, using Australian cows, does a fair 
amount of business amongst the foreign residents. These 
cows are killed when they go dry, and fresh ones im- 
ported, Breeding locally is unsuccessful, partly owing 
to their susceptibility to lunderpest. Indian humped 
cattle are fairly numerous and breed well, but are 
generally used as beasts of burden and are not milked. 
In the mountains of Benguet the dog is the main 
source of meat. The animals are starved for a week and 
then given a big feed of rice. Immediately afterwards- 
they are beaten to death and grilled over an open fire. 
All except the last few inelies of the alimentary canal 
is eaten. 
A peculiar article of diet is the balut, which is 
really a boiled, practically incubated, duck egg. The 
eggs are packed in heated rice husks in trays, and left 
(0 incubate. At a period ranging between 14 and 21 
(lays they are removed, tested for vitality, and the good 
ones (usually about 90 per cent.) boiled. The centre of 
balut manufacture is the country round Manila, and 
one factory I'as a theoretical capacity of thirty thousand 
dail.w The hatching season is mainly confined to the 
months of November and December. 
On the average the diet of the Filipino is very poor: 
Tlie mail! item on the daily menu is polished rice, often 
flavoured with hogaong (a sauce made of fermented 
fish.) This is supplemented with a few vegetables, and 
f'ccasionally some pork or fowl. As a consecpience beri- 
beri is common, and the infantile death-rate is high. 
Efforts are being made to encourage the natives to drink 
milk and to sup]dement their diet with mungos and 
other beans which will supply the necessary vitamines. 
Malaria is common, but the malaria 7uos(|uito flies mainly 
after about nine o^clock at night, and can be avoided 
to a certain extent. Ilookwoian and other parasites take 
a heavy toll of the energy of tlie ])eo]fle. and a recent 
examination of Tmiversity students showed that most 
