XXX IV 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
in dug-outs, which took us and our belongings in a ditch to within a few miles of 
Anak Bukit ( q.v .), where we obtained elephants and porters with considerable 
difficulty. During our enforced stay we occupied a pavilion used by the raja 
as a grand stand when bull-fights were in progress. We shared the place 
with a caretaker, who spent his time in breeding fighting fish — an illegal way of 
encouraging gambling. The only zoological specimens collected were birds, 
among which were examples of the Indian roller, not hitherto been recorded 
from the Malay Peninsula, though it is common enough in December in the 
coast region of the Patani States. The most important acquisition, however, 
was a series of native Siamese skulls, which were obtained from trees near the 
town, a recrudescence of ‘tree-burial’ — a primitive custom now officially 
obsolete and utterly illegal in Lower Siam — having recently taken place. 
Kampong Anak Bukit. A small Malay and Siamese village, about ten 
miles from Nawngchik, which has become important as a government station 
and as the point where the telephone and telegraph lines from Patani to 
Senggora and to Jalor and Rhaman diverge. The scenery between this point 
and the Tibaw River is remarkable, reminding one of us of parts of Queens- 
land. Immediately along the coast is a narrow belt more or less sparsely 
covered with casuarinas and Pandani ; above this are wide plains, overgrown 
with coarse grass, which is usually low but occasionally grows as tall as a 
man, and, dividing the plains at intervals, stand straight rows of ‘trap’ 1 trees 
which closely resemble the ti trees ( Melanoleuca ) of Australia, having 
conspicuous white bark (out of which the cattle-drovers of these parts some- 
times make the walls of their houses) and small foliage not unlike that of a 
birch. Behind these plains thick jungle, abounding in palms, occurs. Anak 
Bukit means the ‘child of the hill’, and the village has gained a name from its 
proximity to Bukit Besar. 
We stayed at Anak Bukit for a night on two occasions in 1901, 
passing through the village on others and collecting a certain number of birds 
and insects. On our first visit, in April, when the country was very parched, 
one of us found the remains of a freshwater sponge, which was suspended, 
high and dry, but full of gemmules, from the stem of a creeper overhanging 
the bed of a torrent. 
Bukit Besar , the ‘ Great Hill,’ also called Gunong Negiri, is a mountain 
approximately 3,500 feet high, on the borders of Nawngchik, Jalor and Tibaw. 
It is a very conspicuous feature in the landscape of the coast region, 
for it rises abruptly from the plain on three sides, being quite isolated 
except for a subsidiary range of no great height, with which it appears to be 
connected towards the west or north-west. Its formation is granitic, with 
i. It is probable that this name is given to different trees in different parts of the Peninsula. 
