446 Count Nils Gyldenstolpe : A Nominal [Ibis, 



XIV. — .4 J^'^om'uial List of the B'lnls at present l-nown to 

 inhabit Siani. By Count XlLS (tYLDENStuLPE, D.Sc, 

 F.M.B.O.U. 



The knovvledoe ot the bird faiiiiii o£ Siani has increased 

 much Jurinn- the last twenty years, and nuuierous species 

 and subspecies have been added to the birds formerly known 

 from tliat country. 



A connected account of the Birds of the kingdom of Siam 

 has up to the present time never been published, and the 

 author has therefore prepared the following nominal list of 

 those now known to inhaljit that territory. Some year^ 

 aoo its bird fauna was very poorly known, and only 

 small collections had ever reached European museums. 

 Recently, however, several large collections have been 

 brought together by ornithologists, and these have made 

 valuable contributions to our knowledge of the fauna of 

 that interesting countr}'. 



Since the foundation of the Natural History Society of 

 Siam in February 1913, several European residents, as well 

 as some Siamese gendemen, have made great contributions 

 to the knowledge of ornithology in Siam, and among those 

 I especiallv want to mention are Messrs. W. J. F. Williamson, 

 E. Eisenhofer, and E. (t. Herbert. 



Mr. Cecil Boden Kloss, of the Federated Malay States 

 Museums, and the present author, have undertaken some 

 ornithological exploring expeditions to more or less un- 

 known districts in Siam, and a fairly large material of 

 Siamese birds has now been collected and properly examined. 

 However, much work remains to be done before we can 

 have a definite idea of the bird fauna of Siam. The 

 country is not a well-defined zoo-geographical province, and 

 the fauna shows intermediate characters, the Indo-Burmese 

 element being predominant in the northern and central 

 parts, while Indo-Malayan forms are largely represented 

 in the southern districts. 



At the moment of writing about 730 species and sub- 

 species of birds are recorded from Siamese territory, but 



