4 GYLDENSTOLPE. BIRDS COLLECTED BY THE SWEDISH ZOOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO SIAM. 



and it is very härd to observe things in the gloom until close on them. At Kao 

 Plyng I stopped for some days and then I went up to a place called Bång Hue 

 Hom, where a German railway engineer had a nice bungalow. This engineer was a 

 keen naturalist and I stopped with him for a month. The environs of Bång Hue 

 Hom showed the same vegetation as the neighbourhood of Kao Plyng, and I was 

 lucky in finding many interesting birds. I also made severa] excursions to Den Chai, 

 Pak Pan and Vang Nun, All these places were surrounded by Dry mixed and Teak 

 forests and had a very interesting bird fauna. 



1 left Bång Hue Hom on the 26th of February and from there I went up to 

 the town of Muang Pré following the Meh Yome river. In Pré I stopped until the 

 5th of Marcli but made several excursions round about the town and up into the 

 mountains east from there. 



Early in the morning of the 5th I left Pré with a caravan of some elephants 

 and carriers with the intention of reaching Meh Lem where there was a bungalow 

 belonging to the Dänish East-Asiatic Company. After two days and a half härd 

 travelling through teak- and evergreen forests I arrived at Meh Lem after having 

 had some trouble with my carriers. I took up my headquarter in the bungalow and 

 explored the country all round. But bird-life was very scarce and I therefore soon 

 left and went back to Bång Hue Hom över Rong Kwang, Muang Pré and Meh Tjoa. 



On the 27th of March I left Bång Hue Hom for a small village called Tha 

 Law, situated close by the big swamps south of Pitsanulok, the largest town in 

 Central Siam. From Tha Law I got rather a good collection, but, unfortunately, 

 I fell a victim to malaria and this of course made my work difficult. 



From Tha Law I went to Bangkok and down the east coast to Sriracha, 

 and from here I made a few days' trip to the big evergreen forests round Nong 

 Koll. During my stay at the coast I also visited the large island Koh-Si-Chang 

 and had a one-day collecting trip to the banks south of Paknam at the mouth of 

 the Menam Chao Phaya river. 



On the 9tli of May I left for Europé and arrived at Stockholm on the 22nd 

 of June. 



Vegetation. 



More than % of the whole area of Siam is unhabited and as a rule covered 

 with big forests. In Central Siam, however, the forest area is small compared with 

 the open or cultivated land, but in the other parts of the country the forests pre- 

 dominate. They are usually divided into two main divisions I) Evergreen and II) 

 Deciduous forests, each of which may be divided into three different types as follows: 



I. Evergreen forests. 



1) Littoral forests. 



2) Tropical evergreen forests. 



3) Senii-temperate evergreen forests. 



IL Deciduous forests. 



1) Latcrite forests. 



2) Dry mixed forests. 



3) Teak forests. 



