NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTING BY 

 DR. HUGH M. SMITH IN SIAM 



Bv DORIS M. COCHRAN, 



Assistant Curator, Division of Reptiles and Batrachians, 



U. S. National Museum 



Dr. Hugh M. Smith, formerly C^iiited States Commissioner of 

 Fisheries and now director of the fisheries of Siam and honorary 

 curator of zoology in the U. S. National Museum, has for the past 

 few years collected natural history specimens in Siam for the Mu- 

 seum. During 1927, continued shipments of valuable material reached 

 the Museum from Dr. Smith, especially during the early part of the 

 year before his return to Washington for a visit. 



One of his most interesting experiences was a visit to Koh Tao or 

 Turtle Island, an island which is 40 miles from the mainland, further 

 removed from the coast than any others in the Gulf of Siam. This 

 island is uninhabited, seldom Ijeing visited even by the natives, and 

 never before explored by a scientific collector. Needless to say, it 

 yielded some new species, among them two distinct species of smooth- 

 scaled lizards called " skinks," and one beautiful little snake which is 

 about as large as a pencil. It is reddish-brown above with a black ring- 

 around the neck and another near the end of the tail, which is light 

 ])lue underneath. 



Dr. Smith's own house and garden in Bangkok are excellent places 

 to collect amphibians and reptiles. There is a tree near his verandah 

 which is the home of a green bamboo-snake ; he often sees this indi- 

 vidual lying along a branch sunning itself and waiting for an unwary 

 lizard. The house itself is not free from reptile invaders, as the little 

 soft-bodied lizards called " house-geckos " are fond of taking up 

 their abode wherever the moths are attracted by lights. The pond 

 in his garden is a favorite resort of the water-snakes, which feed on 

 the fish and on the amphibians which come there to breed. The 

 common toad of Siam, often found in his garden, is decorated on 

 the upper surfaces with sharp tubercles, black in the center and a 

 deep raspberry pink at the edges. 



Many odd forms of fish occur in Siam, although the dry season 

 is very hard on them and they have had to adapt themselves in many 



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