BIRDS AND ANIMALS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 
I DOUBT if any islands have such 
a countless 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. 
Let 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. 
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