Zoological Names and Hieories of the Malays. 461 



adopted from the Siamese, probably without a thought as to 

 its meaning. 



It was with diffidence that I determined to bring the 

 names and stories noted in this paper to the notice of the 

 Eoyal Physical Society ; but I have done so believing that, 

 quite apart from any interest they may have in themselves, 

 they may be useful to naturalists and collectors in foreign 

 countries. My experience, slight as it has been, has taught 

 me that it is usually possible to obtain from native collectors 

 specimens of animals of which the nature, names, or legends 

 can be given, and that many zoological facts may be gained 

 by a careful and judicious study of native beast stories and 

 zoological names. 



XXXII. A Suggestion on Extinction. By C. B. Crampton, 



M.B., CM. 



(Read 20tli March 1901.) 



I think we may consider it an established fact that once 

 an animal or plant has undergone extinction, it never recurs. 

 All the evidence from palaeontology and stratigraphy points 

 strongly to this being the truth. Many theories have been 

 put forward to account for extinction. Most of these have 

 taken into consideration the environment as, the instrumental 

 cause ; either some change in the inorganic conditions, as, for 

 example, differences in the climate or in the relative position 

 of land and water, or else the relations which exist between 

 the different individuals and groups of animals and plants in 

 their mutual adjustment to their surroundings. 



There can be no doubt that the above-mentioned causes 

 have been sufficient to account for the local extinction of 

 faunas and floras, and also that they have been the immediate 

 causes of the final disappearance of forms that were already 

 rare and on the road to extinction. These causes, indeed, are 

 still in evidence as regards our present fauna and flora, where 

 certain forms are ready to undergo extinction on very slight 

 adverse changes in their surroundings. 



On the other hand, the great amount of destruction that 



