ON A COLLECTION OF BIRDS FROM THE SIAMESE 

 PKOVINCE OF BANDON, N.E. MALAY PENINSULA. 



By H. C. ROBINSON, c.m.z.s., m.k.o.u. 



n^HE province of Bandon, with whicli the present paper is concerned, 

 is situated on the eastern side of the Malay Peninsula, between 

 long. 98" 30' and 99° 40' E., and lat. 9" 10' and 8° 30' N. It is 

 bounded on the south and east by the province of Nakon Sitamarat, 

 on the west by Takopah and on the north Ijy Chaiya. As yet it 

 is comparatively little developed though the Siamese Bangkok- 

 Singapore Railway, which traverses its eastern districts, will do much 

 to remedy this. At present its principal production is timber, of 

 which large quantities are cut in the forests to the west of the province, 

 floated down the Bandon river, which is one of the most navigable in 

 the Malay Peninsula, and dealt with by a large and well equipped saw 

 mill at Bandon town, the cut timber being mainly utilized at Bangkok 

 but exported also to Kelantan, Trengganu and Singapore and even to 

 Europe. A little tin is also ])roduced and a small amount of wolfram 

 from a mine on the coast, but the mineral outj^ut is as yet insignificant. 



The population is exclusively Siamese or at least Siamese speaking, 

 though on the coast thei'e is a slight admixture of Malay blood which 

 is more pronounced on the coast of Chaiya, to tbe north among the 

 fishing population. 



The coast, except on the south-east where it is rocky with a 

 sandy beach, is low and mangi'ove grown, succeeded towards the 

 interior by a belt of sandy barren land overgrown in places by 

 Melastoma scrub and in others by stretches of gelam (Melaleuca 

 leucodendron). 



At the base of the hills stretches a large area of very fertile land 

 occupied by villages and rice fields but the province, as a whole, is 

 stated to be sparsely inhabited as compared with its southern 

 neighbour Nakon Sitamarat. Roads are as yet in a backward con- 

 dition, but their lack is in large part supjjlied by the Bandon river, 

 which except in the dry season is navigable for steam launches for 

 nearly a hundred miles from its mouth, which unfortunately is blocked 

 by a vei'y broad and very shallow bar, not carrying more than six or 

 seven feet of water at any tide. 



The only considerable town is Bandon, about three or four miles 

 from the mouth of the river, a thriving little place of apparently 

 about six or seven thousand inhabitants with a large nimiber of 

 Siamese and Chinese shops, a detachment of the provincial gendarmerie 

 and a considerable number of officials. 



Oct., 1914. 



