8 



SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



That this list is very imperfect is unquestionable, and it is probable that many species 

 remain to be added. It is not likely that the skins purchased in the bazaars of Yarkand and 

 Kashghar came from other countries ; but as it is uncertain whether they were obtained in 

 the plains or amongst the mountains, their names are not included in either list, unless other 

 evidence of the habitat is forthcoming. The following species are thus represented by 

 skins or horns purchased in the towns mentioned : — 



Felts lynx. 



Cants, sp., indet. 



C. (Fulpes), sp., indet. 



Martes leucolachnaa. 

 Meles, sp., nov. 

 Capreolns pygargus. 



Wild camels are also found in the deserts east of Kashghar near Lob Nor. The occur- 

 rence of these animals was mentioned by Shaw (High Tartary, &c, p. 168), Hayward (J. R. 

 G. S., 1870, xl, p. 134), Prejevalski (Petermann, Mitheilungen, 1874, p. 42), and others; and 

 specimens have recently been obtained by the last-named traveller. The animal is said to be 

 a small form of the two-humped or Bactrian camel, Camelus bactricmus ; but there are doubts 

 whether the animals found in the Turkestan desert are aboriginally wild, or merely the feral 

 descendants of tame animals, abandoned or lost in the desert. 



The following were the mammals observed by Colonel Prejevalski 1 around Lob-nor, and 

 on the lower Tarim, the river formed by the junction of the Yarkand and other streams of 

 Eastern Turkestan. The names in parentheses are those used in the present work : — 



Tigris regalis (Felis tigris), common, locally abun- 

 dant. 



Felis manul, common. 

 Felis lynx, said to be rare. 

 Canis lupus, rare. 



Canis vulpes {? Yulpes flavescens) , rare. 



Lutra vulgaris, said to be tolerably common in 



lakes abounding" in fisb. 

 Erinaceus auritus ? (E. albulns) rare. 

 Sorex sp., rare. 



Lepus sp. {? L. yarkandensis) , tolerably com- 

 mon. 



Meriones sp. ( ? Gerbillus cryptorhinus) , locally 

 common. 



Mus sp. (? M. pacJiycercus) , not common. 

 Camelus bactrianus, ferus, to the east of Lob-nor, 



rare in the sandy deserts on the Lower Tarim. 

 Cervus maral {? C. affinis), common. 

 Antilope subgutturosa {Gazetta subgutturosa) , com- 

 mon. 



Sus scrofa, ferus, common, locally abundant. 

 The fauna of Western Turkestan, now a province of the Russian Empire, has been 

 described by Dr. N. A. Severtzoff in an elaborate paper published in Volume VIII of the 

 " Transactions of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow," and also issued as a separate 

 work under the title of "Verticalnoe e Gorozontalnoe Raspredalenie Turkestanskie Jevotnie." 2 

 This work is unfortunately written in Russian, but a translation into English of all the 

 portions relating to the mammalia has been published by Mr. Carl Craemers in the Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History for 1876. 3 To this work it will frequently be necessary 

 to allude in the following pages. In all, 83 species are enumerated. Of these, 11 are domes- 

 ticated, and the remaining 72 belong to the following orders : — 



CMroptera .............. 7 



Insectivora .............. 3 



Camivora .............. 21 



Fodentia . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 



Ungulata .............. 14 



1 Petermann's Mittheilungen, Ergiinzungsheft, No. 53, p. 9. — From Kulja across the Thian Shan, &c, p. 166. 



2 Moscow, 1873. When the present paper was first written, no translation of this work had appeared ; and I am indebted to Dr. 

 Feistmantel for very kindly translating some of the descriptions for me. 



3 Ser. 4, Vol. xviii, pp. 40, 168, 208, 325, 377. Some foot-notes by Mr. Alston are added. 



