838 ME. NELSON ANNANDALE ON THE [Dec. 4, 



volunteer, and also of saying how much I am indebted to Professor 

 Poulton, F.R.S., of Oxford, and to Dr. David Sharp, F.E.S., of 

 Cambridge, who have aided me in ways too numerous for specifi- 

 cation. I also must thank Mr. Malcolm Burr, P.Z.S., F.E.S., for 

 identifying many of the Orthoptera mentioned. The immaturity 

 of many of my specimens has made it impossible to place them 

 more definitely than by saying that they belong to such and such 

 a family ; in at least one instance even this has been impossible. 

 In the few cases in which species are new to science I have not 

 ventured to name them, as that is more properly the task of the 

 specialist who describes them from a systematic or anatomical 

 point of view. The immense importance of climatic and other 

 physical conditions of life in the consideration of an animal's habits 

 has induced me to preface my observations with a short general 

 account of the country through which we passed, especially as little 

 is known of the geography of lower Siam. I found a knowledge 

 not only of the native names of aDimals but even of the native 

 stories in connection with them to be of such value in my work, 

 both as a collector and as an observer, that I have treated the 

 etymology and what may be called the mythology of the subject 

 at greater length than is perhaps usual in a zoological paper. 



The climate of lower Siam is extremely damp, and is not divided 

 into regular seasons in most districts, though more rain is liable 

 to fall during the winter (November. December, and January) 

 months than at any other time of the year. The most northerly 

 State that we visited, except for a hurried trip to the Tale Noi 

 (Little Lake) in Ligor, was Patalung, which abuts on the Tale 

 Sap or Great Lake of Singora. In Patalung the rainfall is very 

 small in March and April, but the jungle is never parched by 

 drought. The interior of the eastern States is mountainous, and 

 is buried in deep jungle, which is only broken, along the banks of 

 the numerous rivers, by villages ; clearings for hill rice, bananas, 

 and maize ; and by lawns, which are cropped smooth by half-tamed 

 or feral buffaloes. The soil on the sea-coast is sandy, and in some 

 places produces only a scanty vegetation. Between the mountains 

 and the sea there is a great plain, dotted with isolated hills, mostly 

 of limestone, some of which reach a considerable height, and some 

 of which are riddled with caves. The mountain-region is the 

 dampest of the three, being subject to violent thunderstorms, 

 which are very local and lose much of their violence before they 

 reach the coast. In neai'ly all regions rain falls almost daily for 

 the greater part of the year. 



A very large proportion of my observations were made at Aring, 

 in the hill-country of Kelantan, the most southerly of the States 

 which I visited. Aring is a village in the midst of exceedingly 

 dense jungle, which commences close to the houses. The specimens 

 which we obtained there were comparatively few in number, but 

 very many of the species were peculiar in one way or another. 

 Biserat in Jalor, the only other place where we stayed for more 

 than a few days at a time, is in the plains, at the base of some hills 



