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. 
Cams, sp., indet. 
C. ( Vulpes ), sp., indet. 
Maries leucolachncea. 
Meles, sp., nov. 
Capreolus 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. 131), 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 baetrianus; 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 r eg alls (Felis tigris ), common, locally abun¬ 
dant. 
Felis manul, common. 
Felis lynx, said to be rare. 
Canis lupus, rare. 
Canis vulpss {? Vulpes Jiavescens), rare. 
Lutra vulgaris, said to be tolerably common in 
lakes abounding in fish. 
Frinaceus auritus ? (F. albalus) rare. 
8 or ex sp., rare. 
Fepus sp. (/ L. yarlcandensis ), tolerably com¬ 
mon. 
Meriones sp. ( ? Gerbillus cryptorhinus), locally 
common. 
Mns sp. {? M. pacliyeercus), not common. 
Camelus baetrianus, ferns, to the east of Lob-nor, 
rare in the sandy deserts on the Lower Tarim. 
Cervus maral {? C. affinis), common. 
Antilope subgutturosa (Gazella subguiturosa), com¬ 
mon. 
Sus scrofa, ferns, 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 TurkestansMe 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, 88 species are enumerated. Of these, 11 are domes¬ 
ticated, and the remaining 72 belong to the following orders:— 
Chiroptera 
Insectivora 
Carnivora 
Fodentia 
Ungulata 
. 7 
. 3 
. 21 
. 27 
. 14 
1 Petermann’s Mittheilungen, Erganzungsheft, No. 53, p. 9.—FromKulja 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 lam indebted to Dr. 
Eeistmantel 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. 
