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 Jan., r9o6 I PAPERS ON PHILIPPINE BIRDS I. 15 the claxvs are t)articularly thick and strong. The sexes are similar in coloration. The nest consists of a great pile of sand, earth and leaves in which the eggs are buried at from twenty to thirty inches from the surface. I doubt if decaying vege- tation has anything to do in producing the required temperature for I never found any such material in the numerous mounds examined. After depositing an egg aud covering it with earth the old bird thinks no more of the matter and it seems to be asking too nmch of her to require that she calculate the hatcbing date of her chicks and be on band to help them escape froin the ground! Probably several birds combine their energies on a single mound tho I know of uo direct evidence bearlug on the matter. The eggs are very large for the size of thebird, having fully twice the capacity of a ben's egg. When fresh they are pink but turn to a dirty browu as incubation advances. These birds afford even less sport than Gallus as they are always found on the ground and seldom fly unless bard pressed. The flesh is a trifle strong but is not to be despised in camp. Both Gallus and Aregapodizs are found on Calayan but are comparatively scarce there. It is not unusual to find these two species rare on a large island and abundant on a smaller island nearby. Possibly monkeys, fouud in the forest of all the larger islands and usually absent from small islands, control the increase of these grotrod nesting birds by destroying their eggs. September 3.--'Phe wind and rain having moderated and the crew having im- provised a set of oars and cleaned the boat we set sail for the island of Calayan which we reached, after various delays, on September 7. Here I dismissed the boat. Jutending to collect thoroly on this island. Calayan lies about 25 miles north of Fuga and is a little larger than that island being approximately fifteen miles long by seven miles in greatest width. The beach for the greater part is coral, and narrow flats of the same material are exposed at low tide; beyond the flats the water deepens rapidly. Back of the liarrow beach is a fringe of small trees (Barritglonia) inhabited principally by megapodes, bronze-winged doves (C/zalcop/zaps indica) and a small migratory hawk (/lccipiter .daris). Back of the fringe of beacb trees are small meadows or lades more or less surrounded by thickets of guava buslies. This level area is liarrow, the remainder of the island having an uneven and elevated surface. In the central part of the island there is a ridge of moderately high hills covered with heavy forest; many of the trees are valuable for timber. On the lower hills are large patches of "cogon," a tall coarse grass which is very serviceable for thatching houses. Extensive beds of coral limest{me were uoticed even on the tops of the bigher hills, but the eastern part of the island is entirely basaltic in structure and many of the columns are well preserved. The small town in which we xvere to spend some four months is inhabited by natives of northern Luzon (mostly Ilrcanos) and by a few families from the Batanes, small islands north of Calayan. The people of the Bataries have a dia- lectcousiderably different from any of the.people inhabiting Luzon and my Tagalo assistant, Andres Celestino, who is familiar with several of the dialects spoken in the Philippine Islands, was unable to understand the Batan islanders; he said: "They talk just like birds." Thru the influence of the "presiderile" of Calayan a family was induced to move, and to rent us their house at the modest sum of two dollars per month. Ours was one of the best houses in town. The following I quote from my note-book: "With the exception of two o.r