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 THE CONDOR [ VOL. VIII three of stone, the houses are of cogon 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 ant inclined to think, is a case of mimicry. Some four months were spent on Calayan and a collection of over iooo 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 (C/rysomitris spinus) represented by four specimens all killed from a single bush in a few min- utes; the brambling (Fringilla moutifringilla) of which three were killed within sight of our house; the Japanese starling (3odiopsar sericeus) of which I killed a single individual during a drizzling rain; the wheatear (Saxicola aenant/te) repre- sented by one specimen taken within one bundred yards of our door. Other in- teresting species, the zone-billed duck (olionetta zonorhyncha), the pale thrush (Turdus pallidus), and the rough-legged swallow (Chelidon dasyfius)were killed almost within the town. Early in Decem.bet our provisions were used np and during the remainder of our stay we depended largely upon the natives for our supplies. Our bill of fare xvas reduced to rice, bananas, occasional fish and eggs and such birds as we conld secure. Even my two Filipino companions could not refrain front remarking that the rice part of our menu was too much in evidence. In January a govermnent 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 iu vain on many preceding days. Matila. P. i r.