284 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



the head of the sheep. At eight they were picketed together near my tent. 

 At dusk they used to begin to dig a pit in the earth or sand about a foot 

 deep and therein settled themselves for the night. This is probably their 

 natural and instinctive habit. They would be invisible at even a short 

 distance, their horns being indistinguishable from branches of dried desert 

 bushes. Both are females. The smaller is called Nural and the larger 

 Al Maghrura. They are particularly fond of lucerne and dates though 

 Bhoosa hay should be the staple fodder. They come, I understand from 

 the Great Nefudh south-west of Nejd and are now somewhat rare as it is 

 not difficult to stalk them among the sand dunes. They are said never to 

 drink in the wild state, but these two are accustomed to a drink every 

 day or two. One curious superstition the Arabs hold about them is that 

 eating their flesh will expel a bullet which has lodged in a man's body even 

 if it has been embedded for years. The Arabic name is Wothaihi or Wild 

 Ox. They are possibly the reem oi the scriptures. People have wondered 

 whether these Oryx were originally brought over from Africa by man but 

 any one who knows the E. African Oryx will perceive greater difl"erences 

 than are likely to have been evolved within the known historic periods. As 

 for their habitat I expect they roam the whole Nefudh or sand deserts of 

 Arabia. Sir Percy Cox informed me that he had come across their tracks 

 in the country behind Muscat. 



R. E. A. HAMILTON, Lt.-Col. 

 Bombay, June 1918. 



No. VI.— NOTE ON A TAKIN HEAD FROM ASSAM. 



Last month, while engaged in some operations in the hills between this 

 district and Burma, 1 found the horns and frontal bones of a Takin in a 

 Kuki village. The inhabitants having evacuated the village before our 

 arrival, I was unable to obtain any first-hand information as to where the 

 animal was killed. The village was situated East of the Tuzu Ruei about 

 longitude 94° 60' and between latitude 1>5° 50' and 25° 30'. 



For the following reasons I think it is virtually certain that the animal 

 was killed somewhere not far from where the head was found : (1) The 

 condition of the particles of flesh adhering to the bones indicated that the 

 animal had been killed this cold weather. (2) Political conditions make it 

 impossible that the horns could have been brought by traders either direct- 

 ly or indirectly from the Mishmi country or any country where Takin are 

 known to exist, and in any case a pair of Takin horns is not an article of 

 trade. (3) A Kuki who knew the country on seeing the horns said that 

 such an animal, though very rare, did exist on the high mountains between 

 there and Burma, meaning the system running roughly S. W. from Sara- 

 ma tti. (4) A Lhota Naga who was with me at the time said they were the 

 horns of an animal called ' michi, ' which no Lhota at present alive had 

 ever seen, but which tradition said lived on very high mountains. He 

 gave me the traditional description of the animal, which tallied exactly 

 with that of the Takin. The Lhotas can only have known of this animal 

 by having met with it on their migrations. In this respect the evidence 

 is strongly against them having come from anywhere N. or N -E. of Sara- 

 matti. On the whole the evidence appears to me strongly to indicate that 

 this head was not brought from any known haunt of the Takin, but indi- 

 cates a new habitat of the animal. Perhaps some readers from the Assam 

 frontier of Burma could produce further evidence on the matter ? 



J. P. MILLS, I.C.S. 



MOKOKCHUNG, NaGA HiLLS, 



25M May 1918. 



