FRESH-WATER FISHES OF SIAM, OR THAILAND 9 



catalog, and detailed consideration thereof has been given herein in 

 the systematic treatment. It may be pointed out that localities in 

 which specimens were collected, as noted in Fowler's papers, cannot 

 always be accepted as correct for the reason that many of the speci- 

 mens came from city markets. For Bangkok, especially, the locality 

 thus given means very little, for sea fishes from all parts of the north- 

 ern, eastern, and western coasts of the Gulf of Siam reach Bangkok by 

 rail and vessel, as do fresh-water fishes from the Meklong, the Tachin, 

 and the Bangpakong, as well as from the Menam Chao Phya and its 

 numerous branches and connecting canals. It should therefore be 

 understood that marine and brackish-water species attributed to Bang- 

 kok or other interior communities may not have come from local 

 Bangkok waters. 



An important recent paper is "A Contribution to the Ichthyology of 

 the Malay Peninsula" by Albert W. "C. T. Herre and George S. Myers 

 (1937), for while it pertains little or not at all to the fishes in the 

 Siamese part of the Malay Peninsula, it indicates the presence in the 

 Malay States of a number of species previously known only from 

 Siam and suggests the existence in Siamese territory of various Ma- 

 layan species that may be discovered when further collecting is done 

 in the southern provinces. 



Special mention should be made of the fact that several papers on 

 Siamese fresh-water fishes have had Siamese authors. The first of 

 these, "Notes on Rod Fishing in Bangkok," by His Serene Highness 

 Prince Vipulya (1923), embodies interesting notes on the game fishes 

 of the Menam Chao Phya in the vicinity of Bangkok, with scientific 

 identification of the species as well as their vernacular names. Note- 

 worthy as being the first systematic paper by Siamese is "Note on 

 Some Freshwater Fishes of Koh Samui and Koh Pa-ngan, Gulf of 

 Siam" (1932), by Luang Masya Chitrakarn and Boon Chuay Indram- 

 barya, of the Siamese Bureau of Fisheries. Some original observa- 

 tions on the breeding, growth, food, habits, etc., of an outstanding local 

 species, the fightingfish {Betta splendens), are given in a paper (1930) 

 by Choola Jedadib, of the Siamese Bureau of Fisheries. 



The most noteworthy of the ichthyological publications by Siamese 

 authors is "Index to Fishes of Siam" (1936), by Chote Suvatti, of the 

 Siamese Bureau of Fisheries. The work, in part a citation from pub- 

 lished records and in part a list of localities represented by specimens 

 in the local government collection, is based largely on a fully anno- 

 tated card catalog of Siamese fishes inaugurated and maintained by 

 the present writer during his sojourn in the country. The treatment 

 comprises the recording for each species of the scientific name, the 

 Siamese vernacular names (in Siamese characters), literary citations 

 for Siam (in Roman characters), and the localities (in both Siamese 

 and English) from which the species had been recorded in the catalog. 



