G 



R. Lydekker — Note on some Ladak Mammals. 



[No. 1, 



that the Musk-Deer was of common occurrence on the Tsanpu river in the 

 neighbourhood of Lhasa. 



Mr. W. H. Johnson, the Governor of Ladak, informs me that the 

 Musk-Deer is found in the country below and to the east of Lhasa, along 

 the course of the Tsanpu river. The musk brought from this district, Mr. 

 Johnson says, has wrongly acquired the name of Khoten musk ; this seems 

 to have originated from the fact that when Khoten was a large Buddhist 

 city, and important trading place, the musk was carried there from Lhasa, 

 and thence to India. Mr. Johnson also observes that the Musk-Deer occurs 

 only where the birch tree grows. 



The whole of this evidence taken together appears to me to afford 

 abundant evidence as to the occurrence of a species of Moschus in Tibet, 

 though I have no means of knowing whether it be the same as M. moschi- 

 feriis. The Musk-Deer is of common occurrence in Bhutan, and it appears 

 to me to be probable that it extends north of that district in most of the 

 open couatries up to Tibet, and thence across, or round, the Gobi desert into 

 Siberia. 



The occurrence of the Musk-Deer far in on the Tibet plateau is a fact 

 of considerable importance, as it is the only instance of any of the large 

 mammals of the forest clad Alpine Himalaya extending its range into the 

 dry and desert regions to the north. 



In my former paper, quoted above, I thought it probable that the 

 Musk-Deer occurred in Ladak ; this, however, I now find is not the case ; 

 I can find no evidence of the animal occurring anywhere in the upper Indus 

 valley. 



III. — JVote on some LaiUh Mammals. — Bij E. Ltdekker, B. A. 



Otter. — In his report on the Mammalia of the second Yarkand Mis- 

 sion* (p. 32), Mr. W. T. Blanford mentions that the late Dr. Stoliczka, in 

 his notes, referred to the occurrence of a small species of otter (Lutra) 

 in the Indus at Leh, but was unable to procure a specimen. 



During the past summer I purchased at Leh a flat skin of an otter, 

 said to have been obtained from the Indus at Shushot, near Leh. This skin 

 is of very dark colour superiorly, and the length of the body-part is about 30 

 inches ; the tips of the hairs are paler. Unfortunately, neither the skull 

 nor the claws remain in my specimen, so that specific determination is quite 

 impossible. The skin, however, seems to be very like that of the European 



* ' Scientific Eesults of the Second Yarkand Expedition,' Mammalia, hy W. T. 

 Blanford. Calcutta, 1879. 



