THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 



[AN ACCOUNT OF THE BIRDS OF CHIANG RAI PROVINCE AND THOSE 

 PARTS OF THE PROVINCES OF MAE HONG SON, CHIANG MAI, 

 LAMPHUN, LAMPANG, PHRAE, AND NAN LYING NORTH OF LATI- 

 TUDE 17°47' N.] 



By H. G. Deignan 



ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF NORTHERN THAILAND 



The story of ornithological exploration of the area discussed in 

 these pages opens in 1859, when Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk 

 (1804-1865), during his tenure of office as H. B. M. Consul at Bang- 

 kok, undertook a long and arduous journey to visit the Lao cities on 

 the Mae Ping. Leaving Bangkok on December 12, he arrived at 

 Rahaeng, the southernmost of the Lao settlements, on January 9, 1860. 

 At this point sending his boats back to Bangkok, he continued the 

 journey on elephants, reaching Chiang Mai, via Lamphun, on Febru- 

 ary 11. After a short stay here he made his way to Moulmein in 

 Burma by the trade route that passed from Chiang Mai through 

 Muang Hot and Mae Sariang. 



Sir Robert published in The Ibis for 1864 (pp. 246-268) a paper 

 entitled "Cursory Notes on Some of the Birds of Siam." Although 

 most of his observations concern birds at Bangkok, a number of forms 

 are stated to have been seen during the trip up-country, and two 

 (Streptopelia orientalis and Kittacincla maldbarica) are definitely 

 mentioned as occurring at Chiang Mai. No northern specimens are 

 known to have been included in Schomburgk's small collection of Thai 

 birds, which was sent to John Gould, from whose possession it passed 

 into that of the British Museum. 



No student of birds visited northern Thailand again until 1912. 

 Count Nils Carl Gustaf Fersen Gyldenstolpe (1886- ) arrived 

 at Bangkok in November, 1911, as a member of the delegation repre- 

 senting the Court of Sweden at the Coronation of H. S. M. King 

 Maha Vajiravudh (Rama VI). With the ceremonies completed, he 

 spent the latter half of December collecting in the neighborhood of 

 Bangkok and the period from January 5 to 21, 1912, in the vicinity of 

 Khorat on the eastern plateau. On January 25 he left Khorat by rail 



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