636 MB,. OLBFiELD THOMAS ON [June 16, 



Prof. Matschie's work* on the Filchner Mammals deals with 

 a somewhat different region, further to the west and south, but, 

 true to his peculiar creed that the animals of different river- 

 basins must be specifically distinct from each other, the author 

 gives new names to some of the Chih-li mammals. The material 

 he worked upon seems to have consisted largely of single pur- 

 chased skins, mostly without skulls, and the possibility of any 

 such variation in colour as is found in the Shan-si foxes (see 

 infra) is entirely ignored. 



No less than 19 species are described as new by Prof. Matschie 

 on undated skins without measurements or skulls, or at least 

 without mention of the latter, and I cannot refi"ain from ex- 

 pressing the opinion that such work is neither worthy of the high 

 standing of the Berlin Museum nor of the present date, when 

 pains are being taken in all directions to ensure that mammal 

 work should be based only on proper and carefully collected 

 material. The Americans have set us a good example in this 

 respect, and it is to be regretted that work issuing from the 

 Berlin Museum should be done in so retrograde a mannei-. 

 All the names thus founded will remain an incubus to science 

 until the time when they can be successively examined and 

 weighed in the light of complete material, such material, for 

 instance, as the Washington Museum has received from Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott, or our own National Museum owes to the Duke of 

 Bedford, Mr. C. D. Rudd, Mr. W. E. Balston, and many others. 



About 100 specimens are dealt with in the present communi- 

 cation, belonging to 20 species. 



The following are Mr. Anderson's notes on the localities he 

 collected in : — 



Ohih-li. 



" After returning from my trip to the Mongolian Plateau, I 

 visited Tung-ling, the forest of the reserve of the Eastern 

 Imperial Tombs, and on 12th Sej)tember, 1907, I began work at 

 Yen-mon, a hamlet about 65 miles north-east of Peking. At 

 this point I was well within the hills which border the Chih-li 

 plain on the north, and my hamlet was at an altitude of about 

 1000 ft., while the surrounding hills rose to 1800 or 2000 ft. 

 The hills of this region are for the most part very abi'upt, rugged 

 and rocky. Difficult peaks and narrow, almost impassable canyons 

 are frequent. Tung-ling is forbidden ground to the wood-cutter 

 and charcoal-burner, therefore woods persist and even grow dense 

 and old in the remoter parts of the reserve. One finds some fine 

 oaks, walnuts, chestnuts, and cottonwoods The frequently 

 occurring open spaces are well covered with deep grass." 



Shan-si. 

 "On 25th October, 1907, I reached Tai-Yuen-Fu, the capital 



* Filcliner Exped. Zool. pp. 134-244, 1907 (postdated 1908). 



