SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 
OF 
THE SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
REPTILIA. 
By W. T. BLANFORD. 
■ PHE collection of reptiles made by Dr. Stoliczka during his travels with the second 
^ expedition to Eastern Turkestan was small, owing partly to the country traversed not 
being rich in forms of animal life, hut still more because of the unfavourable season at which 
niany of his journeys were made. The Thian Shan was visited in the depth of winter, and the 
Pamir steppes and Wakhan long before the snow had melted, and, under these circumstances, 
n ° snakes, lizards, or other forms of reptilian life could be found. The bulk of the collection 
^ °nsists of specimens procured on the journey from India to Kashghar, in the Punjab hills 
le yond Mari (Murree), in Kashmir and in Ladak, and those obtained on the return journey 
between. Yarkand and the Karakoram. Of several of the species, fine series have been 
°btained. 
The only reptiles previously collected in the districts traversed beyond Kashmir were (1) 
° Se procured by the Messrs, von Schlagintweit, who, in 1857, obtained one species of lizard, 
v Uch was described by Dr. Gunther in the Reptiles of British India; (2) by Dr. Stoliczka 
lllns °lf> who, when in Ladak in 1865, collected several reptiles, of which Dr. F. Steindachner 
hdV( ; a n account, together with the Reptiles of the Novara Expedition; and (3) a few 
specimens obtained by the first expedition to Yarkand in 1870, which were examined and 
j esc ribed by Dr. Anderson in tbe Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1872. The 
Was the only collection which included specimens from Turkestan, but, unfortunately, the 
Dualities had apparently, in some cases, not been correctly marked on the labels. It is well 
11 that there is much confusion in the localities of the specimens collected by the 
I K SSrS ' von Schlagintweit. Nearly the whole of Dr. Stoliczka’s collections are carefully 
a tiled, and in the very few cases in which, from the labels having been omitted or lost, 
is doubt as to the original locality of a specimen, this is noted in the subsequent pages 
II the list of the specimens collected. 
The following is a list of the species of Reptiles hitherto procured from Ladak and the 
PP^r Indus valley : — 
Lacertilia : 
Stellio lixmalayanus. Qymnodactylus stoliczka. 
P hrynocephalus theobalcli. Mocoa stoliczka (? —M. laducensis) . 
Opiiidia : 
Zamenis ventrimaculatus (Z. ladacensis , Anderson). 
