he following account of the Birds of Siam is based upon collections made during 
a journey in the interior of Siam from January 1914 to April 1915. 
As is apparent from the list of the literature which has until now been published 
concerning this subject, very little has been done up to the present time, and no exhaustive 
account of the Bird Fauna of Siam has as yet appeared. Therefore I hope that the following 
treatise may be of value. Curiously enough Siam appears to have been almost neglected, 
and very few naturalists have visited the country, which, however, is very interesting, 
not only because of its geographical position but for its abundance of different forms. 
The neighbouring countries, in the first rank British Burma and Tenasserim, are 
fairly well known, though several interesting discoveries may still be done there, espe- 
cially in the vast jungles and among the wild mountains of the Southern Shan States. 
An excellent narrative of the Birds of Tenasserim has been published by Hume and 
Davison in the Stray Feathers vol. VI. 1878, and the Birds of Burma and Karennee 
have been dealt with by OaTzEs in his excellent work A Handbook to the Birds of British 
Burma, including those found in the adjoining state of Karennee. Then we have BLAn- 
FORD’s and Oatss’, Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma which still is the standard 
work on Indian Ornithology. But all these accounts are fairly old and recent collections 
have added a considerable number of species to those which were already known to in- 
habit this part of the world. 
Another country which has been somewhat neglected is the great Chinese Province 
of Yunnan. Very few recent collections have reached Europe from there, the most re- 
cent paper being that which has been published by CoLLInGwoop InGRaAm in Novitates 
Zoologice vol. 19, 1912, p. 269—310. 
To the East Siam is bordered by the French Indo China, which countries are 
among the least known in the world. This is especially the case with the interior of 
Annam which up to the present time is almost unknown and would make a fine field for 
a keen traveller. 
The Malay Peninsula, however, is mainly thanks to the energy of Mrss. RoBINSON 
and Ktoss of the Federated Malay States Museums to be considered as one of the best 
known parts of the Far East. 
In February 1913 the Natural History Society of Siam was founded by some in- 
terested members of the European community at Bangkok. The President of this So- 
ciety Mr. W. J. F. Witiramson has lately made great contributions to the knowledge 
of the Bird Fauna of Siam, published in the Society’s Periodical (Journal of the Natural 
