32 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



lar Siam. This is a big game region, and elephants, tigers, leopards, 

 and seladangs abound. Early in December another visit was made to 

 the mountainous district on the eastern railway, with Hin Lap (Whet 

 Stone) as headquarters. Birds were numerous, and the collection in- 

 cluded fire-back pheasants, tree partridges, broadbills, bulbuls, babblers, 

 flycatchers, orioles, bee-eaters, and rock-thrushes. The last week of 

 the year was spent at Koh Sichang, an island off the eastern mainland 

 near the head of the Gulf of Siam. 



Early in 1932 general collections were made in mountainous dis- 

 tricts of northern Siam — Doi Sutep, Doi Chiengdaro, valley of the 

 Mekhan southwest of Doi Sutep, and Khuntan Range. Lao men, 

 women, and children brought in many live reptiles, mollusks, insects, 

 tarantulas and other spiders, scorpions, and other animals. At the 

 camp of the Mekhan, peculiar mountain-stream fishes in large variety 

 were obtained. A striking feature of this camp was the great abun- 

 dance of "daddy longlegs " (Phalangidae), which became active at 

 dusk and literally covered the river bank. As a person walked among 

 them the entire land surface seemed to be in motion ; when they moved 

 to the dried leaves of the adjoining hillside they made a noise like 

 falling rain drops. Their legs were 9.5 centimeters long. 



One day, while the National Museum's collector was staiking birds 

 in the Khuntan Mountains, a strange European appeared in the jungle 

 and showed interest in the collector's activities. The visitor proved to 

 be Crown Prince Leopold of Belgium, at whose request the collector 

 was detailed to accompany the Prince and assist in making natural 

 history collections in the Philippines, Celebes, Bali, and Borneo. 



Visits were made to sections of eastern and southeastern Siam, and 

 in October a collecting trip up the Pasak River was undertaken for 

 the first time. The Pasak, a long, tortuous stream marking the boun- 

 dary between central Siam and the eastern plateau, carries a large 

 volume of water which at Dha Luang is dammed and diverted for 

 irrigation purposes into the rice-growing district of Rangsit. Stretch- 

 ing eastward from the Pasak is a vast primeval-forest jungle abound- 

 ing in elephants, tigers, leopards, bears, deer, and several species of 

 buffaloes. The passage up and down the river was made in a cargo 

 boat towed by a launch, and stops were made at numerous places. 

 Some idea of the abundance of animals in the Pasak district may be 

 gained from the fact that in a normal year there are handled at 

 Gengkoi 3,000 skins of the hog deer, 10,000 skins of the barking 

 deer, and 200 to 300 skins of the gaur and the banting. 



In the last months of the year collections were made in western 

 Siam at the Sam Roi Yot (Three Hundred Peaks), and in the moun- 

 tain-forest jungle of the northwestern corner of Siam. 



