SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 



THE SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



REPTILIA. 



BY W. T. BLANFORD. 



FT1IIE collection of reptiles made by Dr. Stoliczka during his travels with the second 

 -L expedition to Eastern Turkestan was small, owing partly to the country traversed not 

 being rich in forms of animal life, but still more because of the unfavourable season at which 

 many of his journeys were made. The Thian Shan was visited in the depth of winter, and the 

 Pamir steppes and Wakhan long before the snow had melted, and, under these circumstances, 

 no snakes, lizards, or other forms of reptilian life could be found. The bulk of the collection 

 consists of specimens procured on the journey from India to Kashghar, in the Punjab hills 

 beyond Mari (Murree), in Kashmir and in Laddk, and those obtained on the return journey 

 between Yarkand and the Karakoram. Of several of the species, fine series have been 

 obtained. 



The only reptiles previously collected in the districts traversed beyond Kashmir were (1) 

 those procured by the Messrs, von Schlagintweit, who, in 1857, obtained one species of lizard, 

 which was described by Dr. Giinther in the Reptiles of British India ; (2) by Dr. Stoliczka 

 himself, who, when in Laddk in 1865, collected several reptiles, of which Dr. F. Steindachner 

 gave an account, together with the Reptiles of the Novara Expedition ; and (3) a few 

 specimens obtained by the first expedition to Yarkand in 1870, which were examined and 

 described by Dr. Anderson in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1872. The 

 last was the only collection which included specimens from Turkestan, but, unfortunately, the 

 localities had apparently, in some cases, not been correctly marked on the labels. It is well 

 known that there is much confusion in the localities of the specimens collected by the 

 Messrs, von Schlagintweit. Nearly the whole of Dr. Stoliczka's collections are carefully 

 labelled, and in the very few cases in which, from the labels having been omitted or lost, 

 there is doubt as to the original locality of a specimen, this is noted in the subsequent pages 

 in the list of the specimens collected. 



The following is a list of the species of Reptiles hitherto procured from Ladak and the 

 Upper Indus valley : 



LACERTILU : 

 Slellio himalayanus. Gi/mnodactylus stoliczka. 



Phrynoeepkalus theobaldi. 



Mocoa sloli.czktf (? =M. ladacensisj . 



OPHIDIA : 

 Zamenis i-enlrimacula/us (Z. ladacensis, Anderson). 



