FAUNA. The islands are poor in indigenous mammals. The most important animal is the earabao or water buffalo, which is caught young, tamed, and universally employed as a draught animal, while his tough flesh is valued by the natives as meat. He is usually docile. but is slow and lazy and during the heat of the day will not work more than two hours at a time without his mud bath. The female gives abundant milk. from which ghee, a kind of butter is made. The hide makes valuable leather. The timarau, a small buffalo living in the jungles of Mindoro, has never been tamed; it often attacks and kills the larger carahao. A small humped variety of cattle are raised in large numbers for beef on some of the islands. Goats are common and are utilized both for milk and flesh. There are several species of deer. and both wild and domesticated hogs are very abundant. The larger horse as known in America and Europe, does not thrive, but the Philippine pony. originally from Spain, is an excellent
saddle horse, and useful in teams as a earrifise horse, but not strong enough for heavy work. Ihe earnivora have no large representatives. and only a small wild cat, two species of civet eats. and the bintnrong are conspicuous. The islands have nearly IMO species of birds, among which are the jungle fowl, hornbill, fruit pigeon, the snipe, cur lew. and other waders: also the species ot swift whose nests (edible birds' nests) are highly esteemed in China as an article of heel. Marine fish are far more important than fresh-water fish and form the largest part of animal food. the natives also eating many varieties of 'shell fish.' The pearl oyster. yielding a considerable quan tity of shell and jewels, is fished in the Sulu Crocodiles and snakes are abundant. t";warnis of locusts sometimes devastate the fields, and rice and tobacco have other insect enemies.