Excerpt from The Birds of Northern Thailand

Ornithological Exploration Of Northern Thailand

The story of ornithological exploration of the area discussed in these pages opens in 1859, when Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (1804-1865), during his tenure of office as H. B. M. Consul at Bangkok, undertook a long and arduous journey to visit the Lao cities on the Mae Ping. Leaving Bangkok on December 12, he arrived at Rahaeng, the southernmost of the Lao settlements, on January 9, 1860. At this point sending his boats back to Bangkok, he continued the journey on elephants, reaching Chiang Mai, via Lamphun, on February 11. After a short stay here he made his way to Moulmein in Burma by the trade route that passed from Chiang Mai through Muang Hot and Mae Sariang.

Sir Robert published in The Ibis for 1864 (pp. 246-268)a paper entitled "Cursory Notes on Some of the Birds of Siam." Although most of his observations concern birds at Bangkok, a number of forms are stated to have been seen during the trip up-country, and two (Streptopelia orientalis and Kittacincla maldbarica) are definitely mentioned as occurring at Chiang Mai. No northern specimens are known to have been included in Schomburgk's small collection of Thai birds, which was sent to John Gould, from whose possession it passed into that of the British Museum.

No student of birds visited northern Thailand again until 1912. Count Nils Carl Gustaf Fersen Gyldenstolpe (1886- )arrived at Bangkok in November, 1911, as a member of the delegation representing the Court of Sweden at the Coronation of H. S. M. King Maha Vajiravudh (Rama VI). With the ceremonies completed, he spent the latter half of December collecting in the neighborhood of Bangkok and the period from January 5 to 21, 1912, in the vicinity of Khorat on the eastern plateau.

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