THE SEROWS, GORALS AND TAKINS OF BJtITISn TN DFA. 817 



horns more widely sepanited at the base than in the other frontlets 

 known to him and v;ithout the marked thickening on the brow and 

 much less sharply recurved. Hume did not believe that liorns of 

 this type could be converted by growth into those of the other type ; 

 but he was not aware that precisely analogous ch.inges take place with 

 growth in the horns of gnus [Convochoetes). 



In his recent paper on Takins, ])ublished in 1908, Mr. Lydekker 

 relied for particulars of Mishmi Hill species mainly upon a stuffed 

 specimen in the British Museum, and did not apparently consult 

 HodcTson and Hume for information as to the colour and other charac- 

 ters. He says, for example, that the precise shoulder height is not 

 ascertainable, although Hodgson records it for both sexes. And one 

 of the characters cited as distinguishing the Mishmi Hills species 

 {B. taxicolor) from the Sze-chuen form [B. tihetanus) is the absence of 

 distinct beard in the male of the former. Hodgson on the contrary 

 expressly says that there is a distinct mane along the throat and a 

 beard 5 inches long in the male, and this is shown not only in the 

 plate accompanying his description but also in the plate by Wolf, 

 published by Gray (Pro. Zool. Soc, Lond., pi. XXXVI). 

 His description of the colour too applies only to one specimen and 

 gives no idea of the variation with respect to this character upon 

 which both Hodgson and Hume lay stress. Moreover, although he 

 says the horns are stouter in B. taxicolor than is B. tihetanus, 

 measurements given by Rowland Ward hardly substantiate the state- 

 ment, as may be seen by comparing the dimensions of those horns 

 of B. tihetanus recorded below with those of B, taxicolor mentioned 

 above. 



The two forms indeed are not nearly so distinct from one another 

 as Mr. Lyddeker's descriptions would lead one to suppose, and 

 it is quite possible that Milne Edwards was after all right in regarding 

 them merely as local races of one and the same species. 



As a local race of Budorcas taxicolor^ Mr. Lydekker has recently 

 described the Takin from Bhot.'in, naming it B. taxicolor whitei 

 in honour of its discoverer, Mr. J. Claude White, C. M. G. (The 

 Field, 1907, p. 887 ; Pro. Zool. Soc, London, 1908, p. 798, fig. 170). 

 Accordino; to the describer the chief claim to distinction of this race 

 r«^sts upon the smaller size of the horns. In the skull of an old 



