i6 
THE CONDOR 
| Vol. VIII 
three of stone, the houses are of eogon and well made. They are usually very 
small and low and are strongly built to resist the wind. There are never any 
windows on the north side of the house, and all are double, having the usual outer 
swinging window and inner sliding shutter of wood. But few of the houses have 
any facilities for cooking; when present the kitchen is a minute house connected 
with the main house by a platform. Cooking is usually done on the ground under 
the house or even inside the house, which latter must be very disagreeable. In 
rainy weather they do no cooking as the wood is all wet and they never keep any 
dry wood on hand.” 
If I may be allowed a digression I wish to mention an interesting spider that 
occurs on Calayan. This species is found running about on the twigs and leaves of 
small bushes that are infested by a small yellowish ant. The body of the spider 
is yellowish brown, there is a constriction in the cephalothorax, and the front pair 
of legs are waved about aloft in the same manner that an ant uses his antennae. 
So closely does this spider mimic the ant that I have seen persons unable to dis- 
tinguish the difference even in the laboratory. Of what use these mimetic char- 
acters are I was unable to determine, but they were so evident that one could not 
avoid seeing them. 
In many of the islands there is a black beetle which certainly bears a close 
resemblance to a large black wood ant and like it the beetle is usually seen on 
tree trunks. This also, I am inclined to think, is a case of mimicry. 
Some four months were spent on Calayan and a collection of over 1000 skins 
prepared; a number of the species were then taken for the first time in the Philippine 
Islands. Of these the most interesting were the migrants: the siskin ( Chrysomitris 
spinns) represented by four specimens all killed from a single bush in a few min- 
utes; the brambling ( Fringilla viontifringilla ) of which three were killed within 
sight of our house; the Japanese starling ( Spodiopsar sericeus ) of which I killed a 
single individual during a drizzling rain; the wlieatear ( Saxicola cenanthe) repre- 
sented by one specimen taken within one hundred yards of our door. Other in- 
teresting species, the zone-billed duck ( Polionetta zonorhyncha), the pale thrush 
(Tardus pallidas ), and the rough-legged swallow (Chelidon dasypus) were killed 
almost within the town. 
Early in December our provisions were used up and during the remainder of 
our stay we depended largely upon the natives for our supplies. Our bill of fare 
was reduced to rice, bananas, occasional fish and eggs and such birds as we could 
secure. Even my two Filipino companions could not refrain from remarking that 
the rice part of our menu was too much in evidence. 
In January a government steamer was sent to convey us to Manila and I ex- 
perienced a peaceful sense of relief when I discovered its smoke on the sky line 
where I had looked in vain on many preceding days. 
Manila , P. I. 
