6 GYLDENSTOLPE, BIRDS COLT.ECTED BY THE SWEDISH ZOOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO SIAM. 



The Dry Laterite forests in Eastern Siain. 



Eastern Siarn cönsists of a huge shallow basin contained in a circle of hills. 

 The country is very sparsely covered owing to adverse climatic conditions and large 

 areas are covered by great saltmarslies and tliin forests, with onlj^ a few valuable 

 timber trees. During the rainy season the whole country is as it were under mud 

 making transport very difficult: sometimes it is quite impossible to travel because 

 the few roads are bottomless pits and the mud stånds high up the trees. 



I visited Eastern Siarn during the month of January — hence before the rains 

 had begun — and explored the forests and the open country round Sakerat and 

 Non Luum, villages situated a few days' journey south of Korat, the most impor- 

 tant town in this part of Siam. 



Many birds found here belonged to the same species as found in the Deciduous 

 forests in the North, but other were not met with in any other part of the country. 

 Among these were some birds of prey sueh as Feilden's Hawk {Poliohierax insignis 

 Wald.), which occurred in the parklike forests, especially near the villagea, and 

 the Rufous-winged Buzzard Eagle {Butastur liventer Temm.). Both these species are 

 seldom seen in the collections in Natural History museums. The Peafowl {Pavo muti- 

 cus L.) also inhabited these forests and its loud sonorous cry was now and then 

 heard in the evenings. (It also Ii ved in the Northern dry forests, but it seemed 

 to be rarer there than in the Eastern districts.) 



The only kind of Paroquet I shot on the Korat plateau was Palceornis indo- 

 hurmanicus Hume. which occurred in flocks, especially in the plantations and in the 

 neighbourhood of the rice-fields. 



Bulbuls were, of course, very common and among these I got some specimens 

 of the rare Pycnonotus germaini Oust. I also had the good fortune to get two male 

 specimens of Aetliorhijnchus xantliotis Sharpe. in a thin forest chiefly consisting of 

 bamboos and from the same place a beautiful male of the Burmese Chloropsis {Chlor- 

 opsis chlorocephala Wald.). Woodpeckers were rather common, and among these I 

 coUected specimens of Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus indo-malayicus Hesse. Picus cJiloro- 

 lophus chlorolophus Vieill. and last, but not least, Gecinus erythropygius Elliot, 

 which has only been found a few times in Cochin China and the Laos countries. It 

 is distinguished from its near relative Gecinus nigrigenis Hume. — which I also shot 

 in Northern Siam — in having a yellowish — Avhite bill i. a. On some of the open 

 patches small coveys of the Burmese Wattled Lapwing {Sarcogrammus atrinuchalis 

 Jerd.) made their presence known by their plaintive cries »pity-to-do-it, pity-to-do-it» 

 öften repeated several times successively. 



The beautiful Purple Sunbirds {Arachneclithra asiatica Lath.) were fluttering 

 like butterflies from flower to flower, and now and then a specimen of the Red- 

 legged Falconet {Microhierax eutolmus Blyth.) was seen either perching from a dry 

 branch or hunting birds almost bigger than itself. Över the marshes and villages 

 swallows (probably Chelidon rustica guttiiralis Scop.) were busy catching insects, and 



