| OCR Text |
Show 838 MR. N E L S O N A N N A N D A L E O N T H E [Dec. 4, volunteer, and also of saying how much I am indebted to Professor Poulton, F.R.S., of Oxford, and to Dr. David Sharp, F.R.S., of Cambridge, who have aided me in ways too numerous for specification. I also must thank Mr. Malcolm Burr, F.Z.S., F.E.S., for identifying many of the Orthoptera mentioned. The immaturity of many of m y specimens has made it impossible to place them more definitely thau by saying that they belong to such and such a family; in at least one instance even this has been impossible. In the few cases in which species are new to science I have not ventured to name them, as that is more properly the task of the specialist who describes them from a systematic or anatomical point of view. The immense importance of climatic and other physical conditions of life in the consideration of an animal's habits has induced m e to preface m y observations with a short general account of the country through which we passed, especially as little is known of the geography of lower Siam. I found a knowledge not only of the native names of animals but even of the native stories in connection with them to be of such value in m y work, both as a collector and as an observer, that I have treated the etymology and what may be called the mythology of the subject at greater length than is perhaps usual in a zoological paper. The climate of lower Siam is extremely damp, and is not divided into regular seasons in most districts, though more rain is liable to fall during the winter (November, December, and January) months than at any other time of the year. The most northerly State that we visited, except for a hurried trip to the Tale Noi (Little Lake) in Ligor, was Patalung, which abuts on the Tale Sap or Great Lake of Singora. In Patalung the rainfall is very small iu March and April, but the jungle is never parched by drought. The interior of the eastern States is mountainous, and is buried in deep jungle, which is only broken, along the banks of the numerous rivers, by villages; clearings for hill rice, bananas, aud maize ; and by law7ns, which are cropped smooth by half-tamed or feral buffaloes. The soil on the sea-coast is sandv, and in some places produces ouly a scanty vegetation. Between the mountains and the sea there is a great plain, dotted with isolated hills, mostly of limestone, some of which reach a considerable height, and some of which are riddled with caves. The mountain-region is the dampest of the three, being subject to violeut thunderstorms, which are very local and lose much of their violence before they reach the coast. In nearly all regions rain falls almost daily for the greater part of the year. A very large proportion of m y observations were made at Aring, in the hill-country of Kelantan, the most southerly of the States which I visited. Aring is a village in the midst of exceedingly dense jungle, which commences close to the houses. The specimens which we obtained there were comparatively few in number, but very many of the species were peculiar in one way or another. Biserat in Jalor, the only other place where we stayed for more than a few days at a time, is in the plains, at the base of some hills |
