FASCICULI MALATENSES 
v 
that of the surrounding lowlands, and assimilating in many features to that of 
the Himalayas, and of the mountains of the Greater Sunda Islands. The rain- 
fall must have been extremely heavy, and the jungle was denser than that met 
with anywhere else in the Peninsula. The trees were loaded with epiphytes 
of various orders, orchids being especially numerous, though but few were in 
flower at the time of our visit, and the myrmecophilous fern, Polypodium cornosum / 
or an allied species, was common. Of other plants, a fine rhododendron with 
large umbels of salmon pink flowers, a species of violet, which grew in great 
abundance among the rocks at the edge of the stream, and a Rubrus , bearing 
small, tasteless fruit, may be mentioned. Curiously enough, no species of 
pitcher plant was observed on the Batang Padang mountains, though several 
are abundant on the Larut hills and were also found on the Selangor mountains, 
further to the south. The Sakais form large plantations, some of them over 
fifty acres in extent, at an altitude of from one thousand five hundred to five 
thousand feet, in the neighbourhood of Telom, in which they grow a kind of 
millet and a coarse tapioca, bananas and rice not flourishing at these altitudes, 
and their methods of agriculture are very destructive to the jungle, as no more 
than two or three crops are ever taken from a clearing. 
Mammals were scarce, but one species of rat, three squirrels, one of which, 
Sc. maclellandi leucotis , does not seem to occur in the Peninsula except on high 
ground, and a tree shrew ( Tupaia ), were obtained, as well as the skulls of a 
very large bear and of a wild pig, these being purchased from the Sakais. 
Reptiles and Amphibia were very rare, and no species of Draco , so abundant 
on Bukit Besar and the Selangor hills, was even seen. 
Birds 1 2 , on the other hand, were abundant both in species and in individuals, 
though the thickness of the undergrowth and the precipitous nature of the 
ground rendered collecting very difficult. Flocks of a small babbler 
(S tachyridiopsis locager?) fritted about the clearing round the bungalow, and were so 
fearless that it was difficult to get far enough from them to obtain specimens in an 
undamaged condition. Imperial pigeons ( Carpophaga badia ) were common on 
the neighbouring peaks, though we never obtained specimens, and on our 
downward journey both of us saw several individuals of a dull grey pigeon 
which Robinson has little doubt was the rare Columba grisea , G. R. Gr., only 
known with certainty from Borneo and Sumatra. Other species seen but not 
obtained were Melanocichla peninsulae , afterwards found on Gunong Semangko, 
Selangor, and a ground thrush that from its strongly hooked beak was probably 
a Zoothera. Ali, our headman, persisted in saying that he had seen a silver 
i. See Yapp, Annals of Botany , Vol. XVI, No. LXII, pp. 186-299. 
2. Information regarding the birds of those districts which we visited together is due to my collaborator. N. A. 
