While the Siamese have great veneration for the white elephant, the white monkey, the white squirrel and some other white animals, they have a great dislike to a white cat. Their cats differ from ours in color. Some have long tails and some short ones; some have curled tails that look as if they had a knot tied in them, and some have no tails at all. Miserable yellow dogs of the pariah race may be counted by thousands. They are a great annoyance to missionaries when they go into the country distributing books from house to house. We have had seven or eight rush out at us from one house, and it was only by the greatest watchfulness on our part and that of our servants that they could be kept from pouncing upon us. It really requires a brave heart to venture among them on such occasions. [Illustration: MONKEYS.] When out in the country in our boats we have seen scores of monkeys with their young leaping from branch to branch on the trees or playing their antics on the bank, and thousands of bats, that prey upon the fruit-gardens by night, and during the day may be seen hanging by their feet in their shady haunts. [Illustration: JAVA SPARROWS.] Siam has a variety of birds――the snow-white rice-bird, the kingfisher, the gay peacock, the pheasant, the parrot, and thieving crows of amazing number and audacity. There are many singing birds, among them a species of thrush that imitates all the sounds he hears. He will imitate the human voice, and bark, mew and crow. There is a small black-and-white bird that sings very sweetly at daybreak. Our domestic fowl is at home in Siamese jungles. Pelicans and other waterfowl abound. The chief food of the common people is fish. They are found in great variety, and some of them are delicious. The streams so swarm with them that they often jump into the passing boats. [Illustration: THE COBRA.] There are snakes, scorpions and centipedes in Siam, all of which frequently find their way into our houses. Some of the snakes are very venomous; among these the cobra, or hooded serpent, is abundant, and boa-constrictors ten and twelve feet long have often been killed while robbing our hen-roosts in Bangkok. One morning, on going into my bathroom, I found a snake three feet long. On another occasion, when about to retire, we found a very poisonous one under our bed. One of our missionaries carelessly left his trunk open, and when he went for a change of linen, he found a snake coiled up in the bottom of it. I have found scorpions on my bed-curtains, on my centre-table and elsewhere, and frequently in my clothes-basket. But more than all these we dreaded the mosquito, from which we were never free, day or night. At some seasons of the year these little tormentors were almost more than we could bear.