2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 75 



is able to do is to wei-ih facts and probabilities carefully and reach 

 a personal conclusion which may or maj/^ not be correct. However, 

 when the material has been unsatisfactory for proper identification 

 in the present connection the fact is so stated. 



The region included in the following report comprises the present 

 Chinese Empire, including Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, and the 

 island of Hainan. There are listed a few specimens labelled east- 

 ern Tibet, which is permissible for the reason that at least until 

 recent times, " eastern Tibet " was used in a very loose geographic 

 sense, and as often as not included localities which are now within 

 the Chinese provinces of Szechwan or Yunnan. 



Upon initiating the present work it was determined to make a 

 praiseworth}'^ endeavor to reduce to a common plan of spelling the 

 names of all Chinese localities mentioned, but this good intention 

 was speedily abandoned. There are a number of different methods 

 of changing the spelling of Chinese names to conform to our exotic 

 ideas and one can never be sure which of these schemes was fol- 

 lowed by the writer of a label or an article. Hence it is obvious 

 that one can never be sure whether two slightly different names 

 refer to the same spot or to separate places, perhaps not given on 

 available maps. Clearly the only safe course at present, to avoid 

 still greater confusion, is to list all names exactly as stated on the 

 labels or in the literature, save in the case of well-known cities or 

 provinces, when the spelling may be made uniform. 



As a geographic basis I have used the atlas, 1917 edition, of the 

 China Inland Mission, and when this failed me recourse was had 

 to numerous other maps and atlases. Unfortunately there seems to be 

 no good map of China which lakes into adequate account the moun- 

 tain ranges, and this fact renders extremely difficult a proper appre- 

 ciation of the zonal barriers existing in such mountainous Provinces 

 as Szechwan and Yunnan. Hence mistakes in the supposed ranges 

 of such forms as these barriers affect are at times unavoidable. 



The material upon which this report is based comprises 2,106 

 specimens of 283 species and subspecies, all of them belonging to the 

 National Museum collections. These are mostly well-made skins 

 with skulls, but there is also a considerable number of spirit speci- 

 mens and a few skeletons. In addition there are sundry unlisted 

 specimens which it was impossible to identify for one reason or 

 another, such as odd skulls without locality, alcoholics of nestling 

 rodents, etc. The listed specimens belong to 9 orders and 31 families 

 as follows : 



