MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 121 



years ago one of these birds took up its abode in the N. E. corner of 

 the compound of what was the Survey school ( now the Civil Service 

 College ) at Sapatum, when I lived there. It was there for some three 

 months at least in the wet season, and never moved from the same 

 position within a radius, say, of 60 yards. I believe it kept on the 

 high banks of the roadside and boundary cuttings. I never saw it, but 

 it called so constantl}'', presumably in the seai'di foi a mate, that attention 

 could not fail to be attracted to it. The call is unmistakable, being a 

 flat somewhat hoarse crow, like that of an ordinary domestic cock 

 with a cold in its throat, and may be nearly rendered by the syllables 

 Kak, Kak-Kak, Ka-Kah. These birds are often kept in captivity in 

 cages in Bankok, and I never had any doubt that this was one which 

 had escaped. Its call attracted the attention of passers-bj^- on the 

 public road, and more than once I had to warn off persons with guns 

 who entered the compound in pursuit of it. Possibly one of them gob 

 it in the end, for after a time its call was heard no more. I see no 

 reason why these birds should not be able to live in patches of grass 

 or bush-juiigle on raised ground near Bangkok. I understand they 

 have been found in one or two such spots. There is hardly any such 

 ground in Bangkok or neighbourhood which has not been artificially 

 raised. The generality of the country about is low-ljung, and is more 

 or less flooded during the rains, and is thus quite unsuited to these 

 birds and dissimilar to their ordinary habitat. I should say that, even 

 if they bred to some extent, they would be liable, on account of the 

 damp, to disease similar to grouse disease in England, and would soon 

 die out, 



A. J. IRWIN. 

 BangJioJi, 15th July, 1914- 



[As the Chinese Francolin is a Siamese bird, and is admittedly found at 

 larce in the environs of Bangkok, it is, we think, properly included in Mr. 

 Williamson's list, though Mr. Irwin's explanation of its presence here may be 

 correct. Eds.] 



> No. XI.~SOME INTERESTING BIRDS FOUND NEAR 

 THE WESTERN BOUNDARY. 



The following notes on birds, shot on my recent trip from 

 Raheng down the Me Klong river, may be of interest to members 



