BIRDS FROM vSIAM AND THE MALAY PENINSULA 17 



Characterized by the extension northward of many Malayan 

 forms. 



(5) Eastern Siam. The Korat Plateau, bounded on the north and 

 €ast by the Mekong, on the south by the Cambodian frontier, and on 

 the west roughly by the Pasak River. 



Otocompsa johnsoni is confined to this region. 



(6) Southeastern Siam. The varied country along the Gulf, 

 bounded on the east by the Cambodian frontier, on the north by 

 eastern Siam (about latitude 14° N.), then west to the Pasak River, and 

 south to the Gulf. 



Most of the forms discovered by Dr. Smith come from this region, 

 and many Cambodian fonns enter the country here. The avifauna 

 is strongly Cambodian. 



PREVIOUS ORNITHOLOGICAL WORK 



The first list of Siamese birds that I have seen is one by John 

 Gould * of a small collection made by Sir Robert H. Schomburgk. 

 This was only a nominal list of 64 species, but it contained one or mxore 

 species that have not been taken in Siam since. One is named for 

 the first time, but, as it is not so indicated and there is no description, 

 it has no taxonomic standing. Five years later Sir Robert H. Schom- 

 burgk ^ gave some notes on the habits of some of the birds he had sent 

 to Gould and recorded a few additional species. 



Allan O. Hume in 1877 sent his collectors, W. Davison and J. 

 DarUng, to work the Malay Peninsula, which they covered pretty 

 thoroughly on the west side from the northern boundary south to 

 Selangor. Owing to conditions at that early period, they were not 

 able to penetrate far from the coast. Hume published the results 

 of their labors,^ while their specimens went later to the British 

 Museum. August Miiller ^ wrote a dissertation upon a collection of 

 birds from the Island of Salanga, or Puket, on the west coast of 

 Peninsular Siam, wliich he assigned to 155 species. There seems to 

 have been little ornithological activity after this until Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott began his work in eastern Asia in Trang in 1896, of which a 

 full Ust of the birds will be given herein. 



In 1899-1900 the Skeat Expedition visited the eastern coast of the 

 Malay Peninsula, and Bonhote ° published a list of the birds collected. 

 Then Nelson Annandale and Herbert C. Robinson made an expedition 

 to the Patani States and Perak, and the birds collected were worked 

 up at the British Museum by Ogilvie-Grant.^° 



» Proc. Zool. Soc. Loudon, 1859, p. 151. 

 « Ibis, 1864, pp. 246-268. 



' Stray Feathers, 1879, pp. 37-72, 151-163; 1880, pp. 107-132. 



• Die Ornis der Insel Salanga, sowie BeitrJige zur Ornithologie der Halbinsel Malakka, 96 pp., 2 folding 

 iables, 1882; republislied in Journ. fUr Orn., 1882, pp. 353-448. 

 « Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1901, vol. 1, pp. 67-81. 

 " Fasciculi Malayenses, pt. 3, pp. 65-123, 1905. 



