ON MAMMALS FROM WESTERN CHINA. 127 



0. Tho Uuke of Bedford's Zoological Exploration of Eastorn 

 Asia. — XV. On Maminals I'roni the Provinces of Sze- 

 cliwan and Yunnan, Western China. By Oldfield 

 Thomas, F.R.S., F.Z.S.* 



[Received September 13, 1911 : Read October 24, 1911.] 



After the departure of his assistants, Dr. J. A. C. Smith and 

 Mr. Kingdou Ward, down the Yang-tze, with the reniarkahle 

 collection of manunals which formed the subject of paper 

 No. XIII. of the present series, Mr. Malcolm Anderson worked 

 on by himself from September 1910 to the end of March 1911, 

 when he brought back to Shanghai the series on which the 

 present paper is based. 



During this period he explored a number of localities in 

 Western Sze-chwan and N". Yunnan, and has been rewarded 

 by finding a considerable and quite unexpected number of species 

 iulditional to those previously sent. He has been especially 

 fortunate in discovering novelties among the Shrews and Voles, 

 Avhile of the peculiar little Inse(;tivores allied to Uropsilus he has 

 sent home the material on which I have found occasion to base 

 two new genera. 



Altogether the set consists of about 160 specimens belonging to 

 33 species, and no less than eleven prove to need description as new. 



To our great loss and regret Mr. Anderson now proposes to 

 give up the arduous life of the field collector, and this is 

 therefore the last paper to be written on his collections for the 

 Duke of Bedford's Exploration of Eastern Asia. On this account 

 it is suitable to give a few words of appreciation for the manner 

 in which he has risen to the opportunity afforded by our 

 Pi-esident's continued generosity. 



From the commencement of the work in 1904 to the sending 

 home of this last valuable collection in 1911 Mr. Anderson has 

 worked for the Exploration with superb enthusiasm and success, 

 and in the extent to which his collections have revolutionized our 

 knowledge of an extended part of the eaith's surface he has 

 made a record which, so far as I know, has never been equalled, 

 the nearest approach to it being Mr. C. H. B. Grant's collections 

 for Mr. Eudd's Exploration of S. Africa t. 



In tui'n Mr. Anderson has visited and collected in Japan and 

 its islands, both the small southern ones and the large northern 

 Hokkaido and Saghalien, Korea, N. China and Mongolia, Shen-si, 

 Shan-si, Kansu, Sze-chwan and N, Vuunan, his collecting-localities 

 being dotted through all the previously most unexplored parts of 

 this little-known area,. 



Over 2700 mammals have been collected, besides many birds, 

 and, as is natural, a large number of novelties have been found 

 among them. 



* Published by permission of the Tr\istees of tbe British Museum, 

 t Of. P. Z. S. 19U8, p. 555. 



