tepid stream, the carabao will rapidly sicken with fever, run amuck, and eventually die.
Guam cattle are not exceptional in quality, and even since the last war, with the careful selection of imports to improve modern dairy strains on Guam, the domestic propagation has not produced any really first-rate offspring. There has been talk of breeding the best American domestic strains with heat-resistant types from India, but it will probably be a long time before such a type will be sent to Guam. And in the meantime, cattle produce indifferent milk and meat.
A few wild hogs roam the inaccessible places of the island on the inner hillside jungles; they are considered tasty additions to the native diet, although they are as elusive to track down as the island deer. In some cases dogs and cats have gone wild, but with the present increased population and the abundance of half-eaten food, dogs and cats have found it wiser to live in and about the camps and villages of the island and to accept the plentiful handouts they now come by so easily. They seldom go wild today and no longer forage at night like the deer.
Chickens are kept by most Chamorro families and are a food staple. Specially groomed fighting cocks are the prized possession of many islanders, particularly of the post-war Filipino contingent who work under contract for private and government construction companies. On any Sunday afternoon cockfights may be held legally in many parts of the island, taxed, sponsored and protected by island law. In its way, cockfighting is to the Chamorros what the corrida is to the Spaniards, and one of the most colorful experiences on the island is attendance at one of these fight sessions.
SAFFORD'S LIST OF GUAM BIRDS
Guam's loveliest bird is the rose-crowned fruit dove. Its plumage is of a general green tone, and its head is capped rose-purple. The lower surface of its body shades from orange to yellow and into purple on the breast. The sexes do not differ greatly within this color range. When the fruit dove releases its typical dovelike crooning note it presses its bill against its breasts and swells the back of its neck in the typical manner of the familiar park pigeon. In captivity, kept in bamboo cages as they were by the aborigines, the dove cries plaintively all night long, but it does make a good pet and will take readily to a hand-fed diet of cestrum, orange berries, and the fruit of the ilangilang, showing its delicacy of taste.
Another fruit dove (Phelogoenas xanthonura) of less striking appearance is the red-brown colored bird; the male has a white throat and olive-green reflections. Altogether, Guam has several doves, all small, singularly marked, and quite gregarious.
The most remarkable bird in the Marianas is the megapode, named polio del monte by the natives. This bird is apparently quite similar to the megapode of the southern Palau Islands. The Australian jungle fowl or mound builder is also of the same genus. The habits of the Marianas megapode include heaping up a mound of earth with its thick, powerful feet, topping this with a nest of decaying leaves and debris, and then laying its eggs there. It is oddly marked with a reddish bald spot on the crown of its head, yellow legs and beak. Because of its rather clumsy shape it flies heavily. Not seen in Guam for a good many years, this bird still inhabits the less trafficked jungles of Rota and Agrihan and is noted there occasionally.
Guam has only one true bird of prey—a short-eared owl (Asio acciptrinius) called momo by the natives. This is an almost legendary bird, seen apparently only by islanders, who describe it as having a feline face and huge, predatory eyes. It is said to hunt at dusk and prefers a diet of small lizards.
Among the commonest Guam birds is the sihig (Halcyon cinnamonus), a small blue-and-tan insect-feeding kingfisher. Although not considered a bird of prey, it is reputed to eat very young birds and to pick out the eyes of baby chicks. It will also feed upon lizards, and its eerie night cry makes it likely material for native myth.
Guam boasts an edible-nest swift called golindrina (Collocalia fuciphaga) by the Spaniards. It makes nests of dry leaves glued together by a secretion from its mouth, though the nests are different from those of the Chinese bird which are such a delicacy in Oriental soup. On the island there is one real songbird (Acrocephalus uscina), a real warbler that in former times nested in profusion in the Agaña swamps but has now chosen the waist of the island near the windward valleys for its home. It had a song of singular sweetness, and its voice contrasts agreeably with the cacophonous chatter of the other island birds.
Shore birds number among their group a peculiar bittern (Ardetta sinensis) called the kakkag by the Chamorros; the common reef heron of the Pacific (Demiegretta sacra) called the chuchuko, which is not rare but extremely wary and hard to approach; and two rails (Hypotaenidia owstoni) and (Poliolimnas cinereus) called the koko. In former times both these birds were caught by the Chamorros with bamboo snares laid along jungle trails near the shore. A widely distributed water hen or gallinule (Gallinula cloropus) called a pulatal is considered exceptionally fine eating.
Guam has no sea gulls. Noddies (Anous leucocapillus) are quite common, however, and there is a beautiful snow-white tern seemingly quite unafraid of the modern industrial bustle, still quite prevalent in the vicinity of Inner Apra Harbor. It optimistically lays a single white egg on the bare branches of trees. The common booby (Sula sula) is a daily sight off the cliffs of Orote Peninsula, and the red-footed booby (Sula piscator) with white plumage also appears in this area. These acrobatic boobies pursue flying fish and dart down from great heights into the surf, plummeting through the air in a streak of white feathers.
REPTILES AND INSECTS
Guam has few reptiles. Most conspicuous among these is a giant lizard (Varanus indicus), an iguana of four feet or more in length, although many reliable sources put the length up to eight feet. Its general color is dark brown with a speckling of lemon yellow. Sometimes against the jungle perspective it appears muddy green, at other times almost yellow-brown. Laura Thompson in her absorbing social study of the island entitled Guam and Its People retells a native Chamorro legend of how the giant iguana got its color.
"Once," her story goes, "according to a favorite tale, the iguana had a beautiful voice of which she was very proud. The mockingbird said, 'Truly your voice is sweet, but my feathers are the most beautiful.' The iguana went immediately to a certain quail noted for her wisdom. 'How ugly your black feathers are! Can't you paint yourself to look more attractive?' she said. 'And can't you paint yourself to change that green coat of yours?' replied the quail. So they agreed to paint each other and the iguana said, 'I'm so tired, won't you paint me first?' Then the quail, using her feathers as a brush and her eggs as paint, gave the iguana a yellow coat which, when hard, was smooth and shiny. 'Now it's my turn,' said the quail. But the iguana was so pleased that she began to sing and ran quickly away. 'May your tongue split for playing such a trick!' cried the quail and since that day the iguana's tongue has been split and she has lost her beautiful voice."
Legend or not, the hilitai or iguana is a bird-eating lizard and would probably not have stopped to converse with the quail before pouncing on it. The reptile is a great pest, a marauder of chicken coops and an eater of small wild birds and eggs. It has even been known to attack dogs in self-defense when it was cornered. On the neighboring island of Rota, where the high almost impenetrable mesa dominates the larger portion of the small island, the sparse native population and the underdevelopment of land offer the perfect protective combination for the hilitais, and they have been able to breed themselves to larger and lustier dimensions. I have seen captured lizards there that measure almost six feet in length and closely resemble some formidable prehistoric dragon. The iguana's flesh is sometimes eaten, and its hide is occasionally substituted for domestic commercial leather in the fashioning of belts, bags, and small purses.
In the jungles lives a handsome blue-tailed skink (Emoia cyanura), a tiny lizard with longitudinal bronze lines along its back and a skittering turquoise tail. It is a harmless and beautiful creature and sight of it is said to bring good luck.
More domesticated, invading most of the houses on Guam, is the harmless and helpful little gecko (commonest of six varieties is Sepidodactylis lugubris), called the gualiig by natives. After first acquaintance with it, one becomes thoroughly accustomed to seeing several about the house, as they spend many nocturnal hours catching insects. The pads of their toes are so constructed that they are able to run up vertical walls and walk upside down across a smooth ceiling and over rafters and beams. Sometimes they will cling for hours to the