On Mainmah from Central Asia. 391 



XL. — f hi Mammals from Central Asia, collected hy 

 Mr. l)ouglas Carruthcrs. By Oldfield TjiOMAS. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



DuRI^TT the summers of 1910 and 1911 ]\[r. Douglas 

 Carrutliers made, in company with two friends, ]\Iessrs. J. H. 

 Miller and M. P. Price, an extended coUectini^-tour through 

 the mountainous region of Central Asia. Commencing at 

 Minnusinsk, on the Upper Yenisei, shortly after leaving the 

 Siberian Railway, the party worked through the Syansk 

 ]\Iountains into N.W. Mongolia, then tlirough the Tannu-ola 

 ;Mts., the Altai, tlie Barlik Mts., N.W. Dzungaria, along the 

 Tliian Slian chaiu eastwards to the interesting Hami Mts., 

 then back to the Muzart Valley and Kuldja. Lastly, via 

 Yarkand and the Karakoram, the party travelled to India, 

 and so home to England. 



The whole of this great region, down at least to Yarkand, 

 was previously almost entirely unrepresented in the small 

 mammal department of the British Museum, so that the fine 

 collection made by i\lr. Carrutliers, and now acquired by the 

 jMuseum, is therefore of the utmost value and interest. 

 Quite a considerable number of the forms have proved to bo 

 new, and all are most desirable accessions, greatly increasing 

 our knowledge of the fauna of this little-known part of the 

 world. 



It is impossible to speak too highly of the care and enthu- 

 siasm devoted by Mr. Carruthers to the making of this 

 collection, which is throughout of the high standard to 

 which his previous work has accustomed us. About 180 

 Sj)ecimen3 are contained in it, belonging to 48 species, the 

 high proportion of species being due to the varied regions 

 through which the party passed and to their seldom stopping- 

 long enough in any place to obtain really large series of 

 single species. 



Five species and subspecies belonging to this collection 

 were described by me in the 'Annals' for December 1911, 

 one has been described by Mr. G. S. Miller in America, and 

 ten new forms are now named, making a total of sixteen 

 novelties obtained during Mr Carruthers's expedition. 



A previous collection made by Mr. Carruthers in Turkestan 

 was worked out in the 'Annals ' in 1909 *. 



* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) iii. p. 257 (March 1909). 



