838 MR, NELSON ANNANDALE ON THE [ Dee. 4, 
volunteer, and also of saying how much I an indebted to Professor 
Poulton, F.R.S., of Oxford, and to Dr. David Sharp, F.R.S., of 
Cambridge, who have aided me in ways too numerous for specifi- 
‘ation. J also must thank Mr. Malcolm Burr, F.Z.S., F.E.S., for 
identifying many of the Orthoptera mentioned. The immaturity 
of many ef my specimens has made it impossible to place them 
more definitely than by saying that they belony to such and such 
a family; in at least one instance even this has been impossible. 
In the few cases in which species are new to science I have not 
ventured to name them, as that is more properly the task of the 
specialist who describes them from a systematic or anatomical 
point of view. The immense importance of climatic and other 
physical conditions of life in the consideration of an animal’s habits 
has induced me to preface my observations with a short general 
account of the country through which we passed, especially as little 
is known of the geography of lower Siam. I found a knowledge 
not only of the native names of animals but even of the native 
stories in connection with them to be of such value in my work, 
both as a collector and as an observer, that 1 have treated the 
etymology and what may be called the mythology of the subject 
at greater length than is perhaps usual in a zoological paper. 
The climate of lower Siam is extremely damp, and is not divided 
into regular seasons in most districts, though more rain is liable 
to fall during the winter (November, December, and January) 
months than at any other time of the vear. The most northerly 
State that we visited, except fora hurried trip to the Tale Noi 
(Little Lake) in Ligor, was Patalung, which abuts on the Tale 
Sap or Great Lake of Singora. In Patalung the rainfall is very 
small in March and April, but the jungle is never parched by 
drought. The interior of the eastern States is mountainous, and 
is buried in deep jungle, which is only broken, along the banks of 
the numerous rivers, by villages; clcarings for hill rice, bananas, 
and maize ; and by Jawns, which are cropped smooth by halt-tamed 
or feral buffaloes. ‘The soil on the sea-coast is sandy, and in some 
places produces only a scanty vegetation. Between the mountains 
and the sea there is a great plain, dotted with isolated hills, mostly 
of limestone, some of which reach a considerable height, and some 
of which are riddled with caves. The mountain-region is the 
dampest of the three, being subject to violent thunderstorms, 
which are very local and lose much of their violence before they 
reach the coast. In nearly all regions rain falls almost daily for 
the greater part of the year. 
A very large proportion of my observations were made at Aring, 
in the hill-ecountry of Kelantan, the most southerly of the States 
which I visited. Aring is a village in the midst of exceedingly 
dense jungle, which commences close to the houses. The specimens 
which we obtained there were comparatively few in number, but 
very many of the species were peculiar in one way or another. 
Biserat in Jalor, the only other place where we stayed for more 
than a few days at a time, is in the plains, at the base of some hills 
[2] 
