ON NATURAL HISTORY AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF MALAY PENINSULA. 411 



that Mr. C. Hill-Tout, of Abbotsford, British Columbia, be appointed 

 Secretary, and the Rev. John Campbell, of Monti-eal, a member of the 

 Committee. 



Natural History and EthnograpJty of the Malay Peninsula. — Second 

 B.e])ort of the Committee, consisting of Mr, C. H. Read (Chair- 

 man), Mr. W. Crooke (Secretary), Professor A. Macalister, and 

 Professor W. Eidgeway. 



The Committee have received the following report from Mr. W. W. 

 Skeat, the leader of the expedition in continuation of the report presented 

 last year : — 



Second Report on Cambridge Exploring Expedition to the Malay Provinces 

 0/ Lower Siam. Drawn up by W. W. Skeat. 



In continuation of my report of last year (in which the route taken by the 

 Malay States Expedition was described) I have the honour to forward a 

 report descriptive of the ethnographical material collected in so far as it 

 is possible for me to do so under existing conditions. 



I propose also, for convenience' sake, to preface the ethnographical 

 part of the report with a few general remarks on the collections made in 

 the other departments of science which were represented on the staff of 

 the expedition. 



Notes on Zoology, 



Zoology. — An extensive collection of Vertebrates was made, but this 

 group has been, comparatively speaking, so well worked that the interest 

 of the collection is more likely to consist in extending the range of 

 species already known than in the making of new or startling additions 

 to our existing information about the Peninsula. About three or four 

 new species have, however, already been reported. 



A few of the most interesting points about the entire collection, from 

 a zoological point of view, are : — 



1. The discovery of the first two species of Peripatus found in the 

 Malay Peninsula. 



About thirteen specimens of Peripatus (comprising two species) were 

 collected by members of the expedition. 



The first species was fii'st collected on Bukit Besar (3,000 ft.), in Patani, 

 by Mr. R. Evans, and the second some time later by Mr. F. F. Laidlaw 

 at Kuala Aring, in Kelantan, both localities being in the East Coast States. 

 A third species was collected some months afterwards (and independently 

 of the expedition) by Mr. Butler in the West Coast State of Selangor. 

 All three species are included by Mr. Evans in a new genus which he has 

 called ' Eoperipatus.' ' 



A point of great interest (Mr. Evans tells me) is that in the earlier 

 stages of development {e.g., in the size and structure of ovum) they 

 resemble the Australian forms, but at a later period {e.g., in the size of 

 embryo at birth), they more nearly approximate to the American forms, 

 to which anatomically they also bear so strong a resemblance that they 

 have been included in the same sub-family (of Peripatidre). Mr. Evans 



' Quart. J. Micr. Sc, vol. sliv., Pt. IV. n.s. 



