1871. J DR. J. ANDERSON ON RODENTS FROM YARKAND. 561 



kand, where they were obtained by the members of the Expedition 

 that lately -visited that country. As no heights are given on the 

 notes attached to the specimens, I can say nothing about the eleva- 

 tion at which they were found. The specimens in this Museum, 

 prior to the reception of these, were from Tibet and the north of 

 Sikkim. The specimen from the former locality was presented by 

 Mr. Hodgson, and the one from the latter was received alive in 

 Calcutta. There is no evidence, however, that it was found m 

 Sikkim ; for it had in all probability been brought to Darjeeling for 

 sale from the high and dry country to the north-east, in the way 

 the Wah (^E/urus fulyens) is at the present day. 



Hodgson, in his first description of the short-tailed Marmot, gives 

 the Himalayah, Kachar (rarely), and the sandy plains of Tibet as its 

 habitat ; but in his contribution to our knowledge of the two spe- 

 cies, published in 1843, restricts its distribution to Tibet, and gives 

 the former localities, with the exception of the last-named, Tibet, as 

 the habitat of his long-tailed species, A. hemachalanus, which, he 

 states, is also found in the immediate neighbourhood of the snows 

 in the Bhote pergannahs. From these facts it appears that at first 

 he had given a wrong account of the distribution of A. himalayanus 

 (potius tibetanus hodie), which he was enabled to rectify by his 

 more enlarged experience and by the recognition of two distinct spe- 

 cies with a Tibetan and Himalayan dispersion. Jerdon remarks 

 that A. bobac crosses over the snowy Himalayas only for a short 

 distance, but is found on the Indian side along the whole length of 

 the range from Kashmir to Sikkim, though less abundantly than on 

 the Tibet side, and never at a lower elevation than 12,000 feet, often 

 up to 16,000 feet. Dr. Stoliczka observes that it ascends to 17,800 

 feet on the hill-slopes of Ladak, and that it constructs its very deep 

 burrows mostly on the sides of the valleys near the bottom. 



Arctomys hemachalanus. 



Arctomys hemachalanus, Hodgs. Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xii. p. 410. 



Arctomys bobac, Adams, Proc. Zoo). Soc. 1858, p. 521 ; Blyth 

 (in part.), Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. Mus. pp. 108, 109 ; Stoliczka, 

 journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1865, xxxiv. p. 111. 



Length 22 inches from tip of nose to vent ; tail 10| inches, ex- 

 clusively of the hair, nearly half the length of the body and head. 

 Rufous ochreous * ; tip of hairs above washed with black, which is 

 most intense on the back from the occiput to the lumbar region ; 

 pale yellow on the shoulders, which have few, if any, black-tipped 

 hairs, and also on the sides, which are nearly free from them. Chin, 

 throat, belly, fore legs, and inside of front of lower limbs deep rusty 

 red ; the outside of thighs pale rufous yellow, with a few black- 

 tipped hairs ; greyish hairs around the lips ; cheeks washed with 

 blackish ; a large deep-black spot on the upper surface of the nose ; 

 the rest of the front of the face rufous yellow. Tail black, washed 

 more or less with yellowish grey, the last four inches black. The 



* The specimen from which this description was taken was killed on the 

 22nd of June. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1871, No. XXXVI. 



