VERS!' 



59.91(22.51.2) 



Article XXVIIL MAMMALS FROM THE ISLAND OF HAINAN, 



CHINA. 



By J. A. ALLEN. 

 PLATE LIX. 



Recently the Museum purchased a collection of mammals from 

 Mr. Alan Owston of Yokohama, collected by his agents in the island 

 of Hainan, China, in 1903 and 1904 (Dec. 20, 1902 -July 4, 1904). 

 The collection numbers 238 specimens, representing 31 species, and 

 is noteworthy as being the first considerable collection of mammals 

 received by any museum from Hainan. 



In 1868 the island was visited by the late Robert Swinhoe, but he 

 appears to have brought away very few specimens of mammals, and 

 these were mainly flat skins, without skulls, purchased of the natives. 

 He, however, published two papers on the mammals of Hainan, one 

 on the 'Cervine Animals' (P. Z. S., 1869, pp. 652-660), and the other 

 a general paper 'On the Mammals of Hainan' (P. Z. S., 1870, pp. 224- 

 239), the two papers containing an enumeration of all the species of 

 mammals he "saw or heard of during my [his] visit to that island." 

 The species "actually seen or procured in whole or in part" by him 

 numbered 24, with references to others, domestic and wild, taken 

 from the 'Hainan Gazetteer.' His field notes on many of the species 

 are extended and valuable, and he described a single species (Lepus 

 hainanus) as new to science. These two papers constitute almost the 

 entire sum of our published knowledge of the mammals of Hainan. 

 Although quite a number of the species were provisionally determined 

 without direct reference to specimens, or merely to imperfect skins, 

 his records have gone into literature as the sole basis for the occurrence 

 of a number of mainland species on the island of Hainan. 



In 1892, Mr. Oldfield Thomas described the Htyobates of Hainan 

 as H. hainanus, from a specimen received at the British Museum 

 from Mr. W. T. Lay; this species was again referred to at length by 

 Mr. R. I. Pccock, in 1905, his observations being based on a specimen 

 living in the Gardens of the London Zoological Society. In 1892, 

 Dr. A. B. Meyer referred to a specimen of Semnopitkecus received at 

 the Dresden Museum from Hainan, which he identified as S. nemzus. 



The above-cited five papers comprise all the literature I have been 

 able to find, after much search, relating directly to the mammalian 

 fauna of Hainan, which has remained till now very little known. 



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