S. Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



217



Thanks to the kindness of Dr. Manuel who arranged for an assistant

from the Bureau of Science to go with me into a suitable district in

Bizal, I was able to get a short glimpse of the bird life of Luzon ; of

course, I saw only the commoner species, as the rarer forest forms have

long since been driven into the remote districts where there is still

forest left.


The most common, and at the same time the most conspicuous,

is the Philippine Oriole ( Oriolus acrorhynchus), a lovely bird, clad like

the rest of the family in brilliant yellow with black markings. In this

species the female is nearly as brightly coloured as the male. Their

low ringing notes can be heard on every hand and parties of birds seen

in the mango trees behaving in a very restless manner and constantly

flying in and out of the trees. I believe these birds are very partial

to the mangrove trees even though the trees were not in fruit. The

Orioles besides feeding on the mangoes feed also on the native fruits.


Another common and very noticeable bird is the Long-nosed Shrike

(i Cephalopheneus nasutus ) a beautiful bird with a long, flowing, black

tail and from its habit of settling on the top of a low bush or bare

branch of a tree reminded me of an old favourite in Africa, the Long¬

tailed Shrike, a bird which it closely resembles except for the addition

of chestnut to its black and white plumage.


Our attention was attracted to the various and melodious notes of

the Philippine Bulbul [Ixos philippenis) a fairly large bird, but very

inconspicuously coloured, which rather bewilders the newly arrived

naturalist with its great variety of notes and imitations of those of

other birds. These bulbuls seem to keep to the tops of the tall trees in

small parties. Another very common Bulbul is the Philippine Yellow-

vented ( Pycnonotus goiavier), a very abundant species about the

cultivated lands, being attracted by the fruits. This is a local form of

a very widely distributed species.


In the dense vegetation by a tiny stream issued a sound which at

once brought back memories of Africa ; this was the call of the Bed¬

winged Coucal ( Centropus viridis). The Coucals, a genus of birds

closely allied to the Cuckoos and which are distributed through the

tropical parts of the Old World, are distinguished by their extraordinary

call which is more or less uniform in all the species ; this is a loud



