The
large hornbill was named "Gasalo," the smaller kind "Talactic," the
large pigeon "Buabu," a bee-eater Patirictiric," and other names were
"Pipit," "Culiaun," "Alibasbas," "Quilaquilbunduc," "Papalacul,"
"Batala," "Batubatu," "Culasisi." Some of the spiders here were of
great size, and in these mountain forests their webs were a great
nuisance. These webs were often of a yellow glutinous substance,
which stained my clothes, and when they caught me in the face, as
they often did, it was the reverse of pleasant.
Mosquitos and sandflies were very numerous and ants were in great
force, so that one evening when I discovered that they were hard at
work amongst all my bird skins, it took me up to 5 a.m. to separate
them before I could get to bed.
I discovered a diurnal moth that possessed a most powerful and
delicious scent. Vic, who had never noticed it before, was delighted,
and proposed my catching them in quantities and turning them into
scent. Whilst on the subject of scent, I might mention that in
these forests I would often come across a good-sized tree which was
called Ilang-ilang. It was covered with plain-looking green flowers,
which possessed a wonderful fragrance. I learnt that the Filipinos
collected the flowers, which were sent to Manila and made into scent,
but that they generally cut down the tree in order to get the flowers.
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