44 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
passed close by him chasing a Barking Deer, and that one of the 
dogs was black, and the other the usual red colour. He was positive 
they were wild dogs. His coolies saw them also. I mention his state- 
ment as evidence that black wild dogs occur, and can occasionally 
be seen. From a small amount of personal observation, and after 
making some inquiries from the inhabitants of jungle districts fre- 
quented by wild dogs, I should infer that a wild dog of that colour is 
very rare. I should suppose it to bea case of melanism in an in- 
dividual of the species usually coloured red, and not an indication of 
the existence of a separate black species. 
In the same note Mr. Gairdner inquires “ Where do the (red ) 
Wild Dogs ( Cyon rutilans ) go in the dry season? I have observed 
that they chase the Sambar down to the cultivation at the beginning 
of the rains in May and June; at other seasons I never see them.” 
Referring to this query, I would say that it seems to me these 
destructive brutes are only guided in their wanderings over the dis- 
tricts they inhabit by the occurrence of the animals they prey on. If 
they can find Sambar, or other quarry, in the lowlands or near cul- 
tivation in the dry season, they may be found there at that time of 
year. I myself have seen them on low ground not far from cultivation 
or villages on three oceasions during the dry season. On one of these 
a wild dog was shot by Mr. N. E. Lowe, on another occasion one was 
shot by me, and ona third I drove some wild dogs off the carcase of 
one of the cattle belonging to a neighbouring village, which they had 
just killed. 
June, 1918. A. J. IRWIN. 
III. Occurrence of the Pegu Sparrow (Passer flaveolus) 
in South-western Siam. 
In a previous issue of this Journal ( Vol. I, No. 3, p. 197), I 
remarked that the only portions of Siam from which the Pegu Sparrow 
had not been reported were the Western and Peninsular * divisions, 
and that these might be outside its range, as I had been unable to find 
any records of its occurrence in Tenasserim or the Malay Peninsula. 
Since I wrote the above, my collector has brought me specimens 
from Hua Hin and Pran, in South-western Siam—the latter place ( the 
more southern of the two) being in about latitude 12' 25” N. These 
were obtained in June last year. Subsequently, in the latter half of 
December 1917 and the beginning of January 1918, I found this bird 
quite common at Nong Kae, about 24 miles south of Hua Hin, and 
obtained a couple of fine males in perfect plumage. 
Bangkok, W. J. F. WILLIAMSON, 
March, 1918. 
“The northern portion of the Peninsular division, as then referred to, is 
now generally designated South-western Siam, and extends as far south as the 
Isthmus of Kra, Lat, 10° 50" N. 
JOURN. NAT. HIST. SOC, SIAM. 
