982 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



precipitous situations. So steep, indeed, is the ground on which Takin of all 

 ages are usually found that Mr, Brooke was of opinion that they must aid 

 their ascent by hooking on to the rhododendron branches with their horns as 

 he could not otherwise imagine how they negotiated the smooth, steep places 

 on which their tracks may be seen. This, however, requires confirmation by 

 actual observation before it can be definitely accepted. 



Takin go about, says my correspondent, in herds of from five to about fifty 

 head, and, according to the reports of native hunters, when a herd takes to 

 headlong flight all its members will follow the line of their leader, who may 

 even leap over a precipice. Old males are stated to attain a huge size, 

 Mr. Brooke mentioning that some of the tracks of their great clumsy hoofs 

 are 6 in, square. For a considerable part of the year they separate themselves 

 from the maia herds which consist of females and young males. Here it may be 

 mentioned tliat information supplied to me by Capt. Malcolm McNeill confirms 

 the conclusion reached from the study of the specimens in the British Museum 

 that young females are much greyer than males of the same age. 



The best time to shoot Takin, observes Mr. Brooke, is in winter, Avhen the 

 heavy snow compels them to come down to the valleys ; but as the snow is 

 soon melted by the warm winds blowing from the plains, they are only to be 

 found low down during unusually long and heavy snowfalls. Throughout the 

 winter they will always be found on the wander, as if never contented with 

 a single grazing ground ; and if not found low down in the valleys are almost 

 impossible to hunt successfully. It will be observed that nothing is said by 

 my correspondent as to the whereabouts of the Takin from May till October, 

 but I presume that Mr. Brooke referred only to the period during which he 

 was on the ground, and that, except for the aforesaid temporary descents, they 

 haunt the bamboo and rhododendron jungle throughout the year, unless it be 

 that they go still higher in summer. 



As regards the young Bhutan male in the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens 

 the straightness of its horns gives it a much greater resemblance to a Serow 

 than is presented by older animals, when the horns have acquired their charac- 

 teristic curvature. With its conspicuous broad dark dorsal stripe, the animal 

 looks, indeed, by no means unlike a light coloured " sport " of the Nepaulese 

 race of the Sumati-an Serow ; and I have little doubt that the two animals are 

 nearly allied. In its present condition, at any rate, the colour of the coat of 

 the Bhutan animal is veiy different from that of either the male or female of 

 the older pair of the Sze-chuen species exhibited in the lower mammal gallery 

 of the Natural History Museum. 



B. 

 {From " The Field " of 31s« July 1909,) 



No. IX.— A GOOD CHINKARA OR INDIAN GAZELLE HEAD. 



In May 1909, Captain J. Hodgkiason, 5th Cavalry, shot a Chinkara, (Gazella 

 bentietti) near Montgomery. Punjab, with horns measuring 15 j inches in length 



