8 A TRIP TO MT. PENRISSEN, SARAWAK. 



revenue we returned to Kuching, arriving' on June 4th. 



Taken as a whole, the expedition was a great success, but 

 the very great scarcity of mammals and birds was disappoint- 

 ing ; only two kinds of monkey were seen. The cry of a solitary 

 Wa-Wa was heard, but occasionally; pigs, deer, kijang and 

 pelandoh were noticeable only by their absence, and not a single 

 game bird was procured or even seen. This scarcity I attribute 

 to the fact that 60 per cent of the Dyaks of a by no means 

 thinly populated distiict are armed with guns, which they 

 constantly use, huge foraging parties going out before every 

 harvest feast and keeping up for days a constant fusillade on 

 anything above the size of a thrush; further I am inclined to 

 suspect that this the Southern end of Sarawak in less faunisti- 

 cally rich than the more Northern regions. Certainly the list of 

 birds which we obtained on Penrissen must compare somewhat 

 unfavourably with those published by the late Mr. John White- 

 head and by Mr. Charles Hose of Baram, two gentlemen whose 

 labours on Mts. Kina Balu and Dulit are so well known in the 

 zoological world. 



Reptiles and amphibia were moderately abundant, and three 

 species of fish were captured in a mountain stream by the use of 

 Tuba. The invertebrate fauna was extremely rich, and much 

 attention was paid to forming large collections of insects, and 

 arthropods in general, a;:d I am confident that, entomologically 

 at least, no mountain in Borneo has been so well worked at as 

 was Penrissen during our stay there. 



Very little time was at our disposal to collect satisfactorily 

 the flora of the mountain ; the small collections made, however, 

 have proved to be of such interest (see Appendix to the article) 

 that I have determined to send back my collectors to the mountain 

 in October, almost entirely to bot anise. 



Lists of the animals obtained will appear from time to time 

 in this Journal in the order in which they are worked out. At 

 present I am indebted to Mr. Ridley for working out the plants 

 (Phanerogams only) obtained, and to His Lordship the Bishop 

 of Singapore and Sarawak for the appended list of, and remarks 

 on, the ferns. 



R. Shelfortl 



