Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

XXI. ON A COLLECTION OF BIRDS FROM PULAU
LANGKAWI AND OTHER ISLANDS ON THE
NORTH-WEST COAST OF THE MALAY
PENINSULA.
By Herbert C. Robinson, C.M.Z.S., M.B.O.U.
The present paper is based mainly on a collection made
by Mr. Seimund and myself and .1 staff of native collectors on
the principal islands off the north-west coast of the Malay
Peninsula between the parallels oi (> N. and 7
30' N. during
the months of December and January, 1916-17.
The islands had for the most part been visited by us
previously for two or three days at a time and I have in many
cases included species obtained on these occasions where the
specimens have raised points of any interest. Many species
on the other hand, notably hawks and herons, which have
been sufficiently dealt with elsewhere are not here mentioned.
The collections are probably fairly exhaustive for the
islands of Langkawi and Terutau but are of course very
incomplete, for the other islands, which were only visited for
two or three days at a time, merely sufficiently long to obtain
representative series of the small mammals which were the
main objects of our visits.
It will be seen that the avifauna presents the same
general characters as those of all the other groups of islands
in the vicinity of the Malay Peninsula, namely, a great scarcity
of all the more strictly jungle frequenting species belonging
to the great family of Timcliidae, and the total absence of
Eurylaemidae, though we find a few species of Trogons, Barbets
and Woodpeckers orders which are entirely absent from the
islands off the coast of Pahang on the east side of the
Peninsula, these islands being smaller in extent and separated
from the mainland by broader stretches of deeper water.
Owing to the fact that our visit took place in the winter
months, migrator}- flycatchers, thrushes and warblers are well
represented, while a considerable number of shore birds were
also obtained or observed.
A brief account of the localities visited on the present
cruise is appended, while the synonymy has been restricted to
narrow limits, only two. papers which have some bearing
on the localities being usually quoted vi/ :
"On birds from the Northern Portion of the Malay
Peninsula including the Islands of Langkawi and Terutau ;
with notes on other rare Malayan Species from the Southern
Districts." By Herbert C. Robinson and Cecil Boden Kloss.