full of young ants,
is sometimes seen hanging, and the traveller, for his own comfort,
should be careful not to disturb it.

Boa-Constrictors are also found, but they are rare, and I have never
seen one in freedom. They are the most harmless of all snakes in
the Philippines. Sometimes the Visayos keep them in their houses,
in cages, as pets. Small _Pythons_ are common. The snakes most to
be dreaded are called by the natives _Alupong_ and _Daghong-palay_
(Tagalog dialect). Their bite is fatal if not cauterized at once. The
latter is met with in the deep mud of rice-fields and amongst the tall
rice-blades, hence its name. Stagnant waters are nearly everywhere
infested with _Leeches_. In the trees in dense forests there is also
a diminutive species of leech which jumps into one's eyes.

In the houses and huts in Manila, and in most low-lying places,
mosquitoes are troublesome, but thanks to an inoffensive kind of
lizard with a disproportionately big ugly head called the _chacon_,
and the small house-newt, one is tolerably free from crawling
insects. _Newts_ are quite harmless to persons, and are rather
encouraged than otherwise. If one attempts to catch a newt by its
tail it shakes it off and runs away, leaving it behind. Rats and mice
are numerous. There are myriads of cockroaches; but happily fleas,
house-flies, and bugs are scarce. In the wet-season evenings the
croaking of frogs in the pools and swamps causes an incessant din.

In the dry-season evenings certain trees are illuminated by swarms
of fire-flies, which assemble and flicker around the foliage as do
moths around the flame of a candle. The effect of their darting in
and out like so many bright sparks between the branches is very pretty.

There are many very beautiful _Moths_ and _Butterflies_. In 1897 I
brought home about 300 specimens of Philippine butterflies for the
Hon. Walter Rothschild.

The _White Ant_ (_termes_), known here as _Anay_, is by far the
most formidable insect in its destructive powers. It is also common
in China. Here it eats through most woods, but there are some rare
exceptions, such as Molave, Ipil, Yacal, etc. If white ants earnestly
take possession of the woodwork of a building not constructed of
the finest timber, it is a hopeless case. I have seen deal-wood
packing-cases, which have come from Europe, so eaten away that they
could not be lifted without falling to pieces. Merchants' warehouses
have had to be pulled down and rebui