6 NILS GYLDENSTOLPE, ZOOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE SWED1SH ZOOLOGICAL EXPEDITIONS TO SIAM. 



On the 16th of April I left Pak Koh for Koon Tan, a small place situated among 

 the mountains locally known as Lo i Koon Tan. A great tunnel is here being made for 

 the railway and the Divisional Engineer Mr. Emil Eisenhofer who was in charge of 

 the building had kindly invited me to spend some time as his guest. Mr. Eisenhofer 

 is a keen naturalist and during his stay in Northern Siarn he has brought together large 

 collections, chiefly consisting of birds. These collections have turned out to be very 

 valuable, and some reports about them have been published in various periodicals by 

 the present author. 



The journey from Pak Koh to Koon Tan Avas made in about 5 days. The first 

 days march was fairly long and I arrived at Meh Chang, a small village, late in the 

 afternoon on the 16th of April. The whole days march went merely through dry forests 

 with only a scanty vegetation and the bird-life was very scarce. At Meh Chang I had 

 to stop one day to change carriers, and I then made some collecting in the neighbourhood. 



From Meh Chang I had one days march to Nakorn Lampang, a fairly large town 

 of Northern Siarn. I took my headquarter just outside the town near a small village 

 called Sop Tue situated on the right bank of the Meh Wang river, which I had to cross. 

 From Sop Tue I had another 46 km. to Koon Tan which I did in one day. Mr. Eisen- 

 hofer^ bungalow is situated on the top of a high hill and from the veranda there was a 

 magnificent view of the surrounding country. To the north is spread the fertile Meh Tha 

 valley which is bordered to the north by the high mountains which bound the large Chi- 

 eng Mai plain. To the south, west and east Koon Tan is surrounded by wild mountain 

 chains, the highest peaks of which are about 1500 m. The lower slopes of these moun- 

 tains are covered with oak- and bamboo-forests, b ut the higher parts are clad with mixed 

 pine- and oakforests. Sometimes these pines grow to considerable dimensions as is to 

 be seen by the photo, which was taken on one of the Koon Tan hills. In the narrow valleys 

 and in the numerous »hues» (= mountain creek) impenetrable evergreen jungles occur. 

 The animal life was very rich and numbers of interesting and very little known spccics 

 of birds were obtained at this locality. 



When having Koon Tan as my real headquarter I also made excursions to Bång 

 II ne Pong, a small hamlet situated on the southern side of the Koon Tan pass. The sur- 

 roundings of that place as well had a very interesting fauna which in scveral ways differed 

 from that of Koon Tan. 



Another place which I also visited at several occasions was Chum Poo. That was 

 the name of a village situated at the Meh Tha river. As the neighbourhood chiefly con- 

 sisted of open rice-fields and dry forests, the fauna was neither very rich nor very inter- 

 esting. 



At Koon Tan I stopped to the middle of June when I went up to Chieng Mai via 

 Lampoon. The distance between Koon Tan and Chieng Mai is about 70 km. This journey 

 may, however, easily be done in one day as the roads are quite good and between Chieng- 

 Mai and Lampoon there is a broad military road where a motorbus is running. During 

 the rainy season, however, even this road is very bad and then the motor traffic is often 

 closed. 



