8 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CHINA 



Cantor and Giinther, and upon the fishes Giinther, Valen- 

 ciennes, Bleeker, Basilewslsy and Richardson. 



Besides all these naturalists there are a great number 

 who have contributed to the literature upon the zoology of 

 China, but it is impossible here to give all their names, or 

 even an adequate idea of the vastness of that literature. 

 A partial bibliography of the ornithology of China, which 

 Dr. Richmond of the United States National Museum very 

 kindly prepared at my request, contains the titles of over 

 seven hundred publications, which are scattered throughout 

 numerous journals, or have appeared in book form. It is 

 almost certain that no library in the world contains a com- 

 plete set of all the publications upon the fauna of China, 

 though that of the Natural History Museum at South 

 Kensington (British Museum) is remarkably replete with 

 this form of literature. The libraries in China, alas, contain 

 very little in this line, far too little to enable anything serious 

 in the way of research work to be done. The Geological 

 Department in Peking is trying to form a good working 

 library, while the Zikawei Museum has a fairly useful one. 

 The library of the late Dr. G. E. Morrison of Peking con- 

 tained a good collection of zoological works on China, but 

 it was sold and taken away to Japan. This lack of the 

 literature upon the subject is a very serious handicap to 

 anyone trying to* do original research in the country, while 

 another serious handicap is the lack of collected material 

 in the way of good series of properly labelled specimens for 

 purposes of comparison. I should like to see an awakening 

 of the interests of the members of the Royal Asiatic Society 

 (North-China Branch) in regard to this matter, for this in- 

 stitution is obviously the one to lead the way, in this part 

 of China at least, in the study of the zoology of the country, 

 and all that is needed are adequate funds for the purchase 

 of books and papers and to send collectors out into the field 

 to gather more material. The society's museum already 

 has a considerable amount of valuable material, but much 

 more is needed before it can be considered as a genuine 

 working museum rather than a show place. 



Mammals. 



The Mammalia of China is a comparatively large and 

 varied one. It contains representatives of numerous families 

 and genera, some of them unique, and most of them ex- 

 tremely interesting. Probably the great order Rodentia is 

 most fully represented, though the Carnivora are extremely 

 abundant, especially in some localities. The Ungulata, or 



