76 Mr. C. Boclen Kloss on Birds [Ibis, 



V. — OnBiriis recently collected in Siam. Part 1. Pliasianidse — 

 Eurylsemidee. By C. Boden Kloss, M.B.O.U. 



Introduction. 



During Septeraher and November 1916 I spent a couple of 

 months^ vacation leave in Siam with three Dyak collectors : 

 we got in about thirty-three actual working days, and our 

 efforts were largely devoted to o])taining mammals as well as 

 seeking for birds and reptiles. 



Owing to the fact that the state of tlie country made it 

 almost impossible for us to reach good collecting-ground in 

 the districts 1 visited, if we were to do any collecting at all 

 in the time available, the results are much smaller than 

 perhaps they would have been in more favourable circum- 

 stances, and the collection of birds only numbers about 

 420 specimens of 145 species. 



I was told that I had arrived at al)out the worst time 

 possible for collecting, since near the end of the year 

 the raii\s are at their height, the low-lying parts of the 

 country flooded and the streams and rivers much swollen. 

 This, indeed, I found to be the case ; we were everywhere 

 stopped by floods, and instead of collecting at chosen 

 localities we had to work at places where one finally starts 

 for these. We were hardly in forest at any time ; also 

 many species of birds were in a state of moult. When 

 I left Siam, towards the end of November, conditions 

 liad begun to improve rajjidly ; it was the time when our 

 visit should have commenced. 



1 reached Korat on September 30, with the intention 

 of travelling eastward down the Nam Mun towards Ubon, 

 but could not get to the river because the intervening 

 country was flooded to a depth greater than the height 

 of floor of our bullock-carts. We therefore started south- 

 eastwards towards the mountains, where good forest was 

 reported three or four days away, for I hoped we should 

 travel over rising ground in that direction ; but on the 



