MAMMALIA. 



3 



Forsyth, are Messrs. Shaw and Hayward, who, independently of each other, penetrated to 

 Kashghar in 1868 ; Dr. Scully, who accompanied Mr. Shaw to Kashghar, when the last 

 named officer visited the country a second time in 1874 ; and Colonel Prejevalski, whose 

 journeys, however, were entirely to the eastward of Kashghar and Yarkand. Excellent 

 accounts have been published of most of the visits. 1 Occasional references to the fauna 

 may be found in all of them, but the only travellers, except Dr. Stoliczka, who paid 

 special attention to the zoology of the country, were Dr. Henderson, who was attached as 

 medical officer to the first mission under Sir Douglas Forsyth, Dr. Scully, who accom- 

 panied Mr. Shaw in a similar capacity, and Colonel Prejevalski. The detailed zoological results 

 of Colonel Prejevalski's journey to Lake Lob and the Altyn mountains in Eastern Turkestan, 

 if published, have not yet reached India, but lists of the larger mammals noticed are given in 

 the official report of his journey, which has been translated into German and English. 2 In 

 these notices, however, the species are naturally not critically determined. Both Dr. Henderson 

 and Dr. Scully paid especial attention to birds, although both brought away with them some 

 very interesting mammals. Some of the rodents procured by Dr. Henderson were described 

 by Dr. J. Anderson in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 3 and notices of 

 some specimens obtained by Dr. Scully were given by Mr. Wood-Mason 4 and the present 

 writer 5 in the Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The specimens 

 thus described, and a few others not hitherto mentioned in print, will be noticed in the 

 following pages. It is a singular fact, showing how much, in all probability, yet remains to 

 be ascertained concerning the fauna of Ladak and Yarkand, that of the seven species of 

 mammals 6 of which specimens were procured in those countries by Dr. Henderson, only 

 three are represented in the collections made by Dr. Stoliczka. 



Although Ladak has been visited and described by numerous travellers, there is not 

 much more recorded concerning its fauna than is to be found in occasional notes. Very 

 little indeed can be gleaned from Moorcroft. 7 Vigne 8 noticed a few of the mammals met 

 with, and one of the wild sheep has been named after him. Thomson 9 devoted himself 

 solely to botany, and scarcely referred to any of the animals observed ; but Cunningham 10 gave 

 a chapter to the wild animals of Ladak, amongst which he mentioned the kyang, wild yak, 

 three kinds of wild sheep, markhor, ibex, Tibetan stag, musk deer, leopard, bear, wolf, 

 fox, hare, lagomys, marmot, and weasel. Some of these animals cannot, however, be 



1 Visit to High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashghar, formerly Chinese Tartary, and return journey over the Karakoram Pass. By 

 Robert Shaw : London, 1871. 



Journey from Leh to Yarkand and Kashghar, and exploration of the sources of the Yarkand river. By G. W. Hayward ; Jour. 

 Roy. Geog. Soc, 1870, xl, p. 33. 



Lahore to Yarkand. By George Henderson, M. D., and Allan 0. Hume, c. B. : London, 1873. 



A contribution to the Ornithology of Eastern Turkestan. By J. Scully, Surgeon, Bengal Army. Stray Feathers, iv, 

 1876, p. 41. 



2 Przewalsky's Reise an den Lob-nor und Altyn-Tag, 1876-77 ; Petermann's Mittheilungen, Erganzungsheft No. 53, 1878.— 

 From Kulja across the Tian-Shan to Lob-nor by Colonel N. Prejevalsky ; translated by E. Delmar Morgan : London, 1879. 



3 On some Rodents from Yarkand, P. Z. S., 1871, p. 559. 



4 P. A. S. B., 1876, p. 80. 



5 J. A. S. B., 1876, xlv, Pt. 2, p. 49 ; 1877, xlvi, Pt.2, p. 259. 



6 These species were Erinaceus albulus, Mustela temon ?, M. erminea, Arctomys Mmalayaniis, A. caudatus, Lepus pallipea 

 var., and Lagomys ladacensis. The first and the two last were obtained also by Dr. Stoliczka. 



7 Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Punjab, in Ladakh and Kashmir, &c, 1841, p. 311. 



8 Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, &c, 1842, ii, p. 277, &c. 



9 Western Himalaya and Tibet, 1852. 



10 Ladak, physical, statistical, and historical, with notices of the surrounding countries : London, 1854, p. 195. 



