THE SEROWS, GOliALS AND TAKINS OF BRITISH INDIA. 815 



Biidonur taxieolor, Hodo;son. 



FTmlgson, .Tonrn. x\smtio Society, Bengal, XIX, pp. 65-75, pis. 

 1—111,1850; Hunio, Pro. Zool. Society, London, 1887, p. 485, 

 tigs. 1-3; Blanford, Mamin. British India, [). 515, 1891 ; Lydekker, 

 Pro. Zool. Society, London, 1908, p. 79(1, fig. 1H8 ; and of other 

 authors. 



The colour of this species is evidently subject to a good deal of 

 variation. According to Hodgson the entire body both above and at 

 the sides is yellowish grey, thus suggesting the name " taxicolor " or 

 badger-coloured ; but the quantity of grey is variable, the whole 

 animal being sometimes uniformly black owing to the absence of the 

 grey, which results from the basal two-thirds of each hair being of a 

 straw tint with the apical third black. The whole of the head and 

 neck, the greater part of the belly, the tail and legs are black. It 

 seems probable that the difference in the body-colour Hodgson points 

 out is of a seasonal nature. The newly growing hairs showing only 

 their apical third would give a black appearance to the pilage, but as 

 the basal pale portion appeared gradually above the surface of the 

 skin the colour would become at the same time more and more 

 yellowish. This suggestion is borne out by Hume's account. He 

 says the black or blackish heads are constant from kids to the 

 largest males and females ; but in some cases the body is yellowish 

 dun, almost as in Milne Edward's plate of B. tihetanus, while in others 

 it is deep reddish brown with a great deal of black intermingled, and 

 sometimes intermediate shades occur. Hume adds that in his opinion 

 these differences are not due to age or sex but to season. Both Hume 

 and Hodgson agree that there is no sexual dimorphism in colour, 

 the male and female being alike in this respect. 



In the mounted male specimen in the British Museum the head 

 as far back as a line lying behind the horns and ears is blackish 

 brown ; while the whole of the neck both above and at the sides, 

 the withers and back half way down the sides and the croup are 

 yellowish tawny or fawn, the tail, the outside of the thigh, the lower 

 half of the body and of the shoulders, and the legs are blackisii 

 brown. There is in this specimen a dark spinal stripe extending from 

 the occiput to the root of the tail ; but whether the s{)inal stripe 

 always extends as far forwards as in this example there is not 

 sufficient evidence to show. 

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