Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/333

Rh, Ruticilla erythrogastra, Accentor montanellus, Nemura cyanura. The flight of birds of passage was nearly over by this time, the grass was withered, the leaves on the trees and bushes turned yellow or fallen off; snow fell instead of rain; frosts set in every night, and the depth of autumn had settled on the mountains.

The Mammalia are even less varied than the birds; but their want of variety is compensated for by their numbers, especially of the larger animals. During the whole of our stay in these mountains on both occasions we only found eight kinds of mammals, viz. the deer (Cervus sp.), chiefly inhabiting the pine forests on the western slopes, musk-deer (Moschus moschiferus), mountain sheep (Ovis Burrhel), called by the Mongols kukuyaman, i.e. blue goat, in great numbers on the eastern and more rocky side of the range. Among animals of prey are wolves, foxes, and polecats (Mustela sp.); among Rodentia a species of Lagomys and mouse (Mus sp.); and the Mongols assured us that in the northern unwooded parts of the range there are also argali.

Deer are plentiful in the Ala-shan mountains, where they are strictly preserved by order of the prince. They are nevertheless killed secretly, especially in summer, at the season of the growth of the young horns, so valuable in China. While we were in the mountains it was the rutting season of the deer, and the loud call-note of the males resounded in the forests day and night. I need