Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1908-03-13
A Weekly Letter From the Orient
FURNISHED BY THE RECORDER 'sSPaC-
IAL CORRESPONDENT, WHO Is
Maxine A Tour OF THE EAST
ERIN COUNTRIES.

IAL CORRESPONDENT, WHO Is
Maxine A Tour OF THE EAST
ERIN COUNTRIES.
Especial to Rec5rderl
Manila, P. I. October 5:-The
first things that strikes the visitor
TO the Philippines is the enormous
number of birds and their wondfr-
full plumage. This country may
b. said to be bird paradise, and
one who loves to study birds could
spend lifetime here with full EN-
inyment Of every day of it.
The most beautiful bird to be seen
is the sun bird, which is small, like
the humming bird, and most gor-
geously colorei. 1t feeds on the
honey Of flowers but is not so
strong in flight as the hummers
As it flashes abont among
the flowers it looks like an ANNA
ted sunbeam.
The strangtst bird is the mound
builder. 1t is called by the natives
the tabon. These birds are about
The size of small chickens but Law
very large eggs, which are out of
proportion to the size of the bird
They burrow in sand and soft earth
aud lay their eggs two or three
feet below the surface. The eggs
are rich in yolk, and when the
yonng birds hatch they are highly
developed and scratch tier way
out of the ground and run to the
forest where they take care of
themselves. When the parent
bird deposits its egg it covers it
with earth and mound of steadi-
ly increasing size is thus formed.
I saw one such mound fifteen feet
in diameter and FIVE feet high.
The natives prize these eggs high.
ly for food, and search for the
mounds and rob them.
Late one afternoon We started
from Manila and went to coun.
try place of friend where we re-
manned all night. We were mp.
with the sun and by the time We
had breakfast the dog had been
dispelled and we started for hunt
in the forest nearby. Hundreds of
parrot sparokeets and 1cocatoos
filed the forest with noise. while
it seemed as il thousands of birds
Of all kinds and colors were filter.
ing in the trees or running through
the tangled grass. We bad gone
but short distance when | saw
what | supposed to bea domestic
leghorn rooster, bnt as it took
wing and few through the forest
like pheasant [ was sure | had
missed an opportunity. | was not
mistaken for found that it was a
Jungle fowl which is the progeni-
tor of the red leghorn chicken.
These Jungle fowls are frequent
ly domesticated in the Philippines,
and cross readily with chickens.
The natives catch them by taking
a domestic rooster to the woods
and tying it in in a small open
place. When the rooster crows it
is answered by the jungle cock
which comes to give battle to the
invader of its domain. 1t gets
caught in shares deftly laid near
the tied rooster. We found sever
al during our morning hunt and
they gave good shooting, for they
are strong of wing and good flyers.
We remained in the forest about
four hours and in that time killed
six jungle cocks, twenty five pig
cons, known rs balud, about three
times as large as the wild pigeon
| of the United States, fifty snipe
| and plover and ten mallard duck.
As there were but three in the par.
ty besides the bows to carry the
game, one can imagine that there
was plenty of good shooting to be
found within a short distance
The weather is SO sultry that one
does not care to undergo great ex'
ertion, and mostof our time wa'
spent in sitting down and talking
over the strange thing to be seen
AS we returned along the banks
we could gee hundreds of alligator
basking on the mud banks, and on
host promised to give us SOM