2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL. MUSEUM Vol. 6ft 



The National Museum is particularly anxious to receive addi- 

 tional material of the critical species discussed in detail in the fol- 

 lowing pages, as well as species not yet represented in our collection. 



The orthography of the Chinese locality names and their identi- 

 fication in the various publications of French, German, English,. 

 and Russian writers, who have each used a transliteration into his 

 own particular language, has caused great trouble. The confusion 

 has been increased by some Russian herpetologists who have retrans- 

 literated from the Russian alphabet to the German or the Polish. 

 However, the necessity of a uniform spelling of these names in the 

 following paper is obvious. On the other hand, it is equally obvious 

 that some authority had to be followed, which has been generally 

 adopted and whose names are incorporated in detailed maps where 

 they may be easily located. As such an authority I have selected 

 the Atlas of the Chinese Empire, specially prepared by Edward 

 Stanford for the China Inland Mission, 1908. This Atlas con- 

 sists of separate maps of the 18 provinces of China proper on the 

 scale of 1 : 3,000,000, and 4 of the great dependencies Sinkiang, 

 Manchuria, Tibet, and Mongolia, on the scale of 1 : 7,500,000, to- 

 gether with an index to all the names on the maps. 



With regard to the system of orthography followed in this Atlas, 

 the Editorial Secretary of the Mission writes in the preface : 



After carefully considering the relative values of the various systems in 

 use, it was felt that the orthography adopted by the Chinese Imperial Post 

 Office must ultimately carry the day, since conformity to that spelling would 

 be necessary in all postal and telegraphic communications with China, a usage 

 which could hardly fail to be a determining factor of no small importance. 



It is probable that the romauisation adopted will not satisfy all sinologues, 

 but academic considerations have frequently to yield to a practical modus 

 operandi. 



Whenever practicable, except in quotations, I have therefore 

 adopted the spelling of this Atlas. In some cases alternate spellings 

 have been given. In cases where I have been unable to find a locality 

 on any of the maps accessible to me I have had to fall back on the 

 spelling of the specimen label or the publication referring to that 

 particular locality. I regret very much that in many instances it 

 has been impossible to locate names given by Abbe Armand David, 

 the French missionary, on the Atlas to which I have referred. Some 

 of them could be located on the maps accompanying his Journal de 

 mon Troisieme Voyage d'Exploration dans I'Empire Chinois (2 

 vols., Paris, 1875), in which case his spelling of the names has been 

 accepted. 



