the breadth of the very tortuous Bicol, at its mouth, is a little over
sixty feet, and increases but very gradually. There is considerable
variety of vegetation upon its banks, and in animal life it is highly
attractive. I was particularly struck with its numerous monkeys and
water-fowl. [Plotus water-fowl.] Of the latter the Plotus variety
was most abundant, but difficult to shoot. They sit motionless on
the trees on the bank, only their thin heads and necks, like those
of tree-snakes, overtopping the leaves. On the approach of the boat
they precipitate themselves hastily into the water; and it is not
until after many minutes that the thin neck is seen rising up again
at some distance from the spot where the bird disappeared. The Plotus
appears to be as rapid on the wing as it is in swimming and diving.

[Naga.] In Naga, the chief city of South Camarines, I alighted at
the tribunal, from which, however, I was immediately invited by the
principal official of the district--who is famed for his hospitality
far beyond the limits of his province--to his house, where I was loaded
with civilities and favors. This universally beloved gentleman put
everybody under contribution in order to enrich my collections, and did
all in his power to render my stay agreeable and to further my designs.

[Nueva Caceres.] Naga is the seat of a bishopric and of the provincial
government. In official documents it is called Nueva Caceres, in
honor of the Captain-General, D. Fr. de Sande, a native of Caceres,
who about 1578 founded Naga (the Spanish town) close to the Filipino
village. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it numbered
nearly one hundred Spanish inhabitants; at the present time it hardly
boasts a dozen. Murillo Velarde remarks (xiii, 272), in contrast
to the state of things in America, that of all the towns founded in
the Philippines, with the exception of Manila, only the skeletons,