823 



NOTE UPON THE SKIN AND SKULL OF A SEROW OBTAINED 

 BY CAPT. F. BAILEY AT CHUMBI IN TIBET. 



HV 



R. I. PococK, F.L.S.. F.Z.S., 



Superintendent of the Zoological Societifs Gardens, London. 



At the request of Mr. W. S. Millard and of Capt. F. Bailey I examined, at 

 Rowland Ward's in Piccadilly, the skin and skull of a Serow obtained by 

 (Japt. Bailey at Chumbi, near Sikkim, at an altitude of 10,000 feet, and now. 

 1 understand, exhibited in the Edinburgh Museum. Although the animal 

 appears to me to belong to the same race of Serows as the form described by 

 Hodgson from Nepal as /4tt</iqpe <^ar, remains of Serows so seldom come to 

 hand for examination that I think a descriptive note of the characters of 

 this animal is worth publishing. I may add that there is an example of 

 Serow in the British Museum from Sikkim which was procured by Dr. Blan- 

 ford. This animal was correctly identified by Blanford with Hodgson's 

 species and presents practically the same features as Capt. Bailey's example, 

 except that the belly is not white along the middle line. I have reason to 

 think this difference may be a matter of age. 



According to the paper I recently wrote upon the Serows of the Himalayas 

 and Straits Settlements, Capt. Bailey's specimen should be called Capricornis 

 Sumatraensis thar ; or if any one prefers to regard the Himalayan Serows as 

 specifically distinct from Sumatran and Malaccan Serows, it may be called 

 more shortly Capricornis thar. 



Prevailing colour black on the head, neck and body, the basal portion of the 

 hairs on the body and the posterior part of the mane white, towards the belly 

 and on the outerside of the thighs the black passes gi-adually into rufous 

 brown ; a brownish tinge on the backs of the ears and on the sides of the 

 upper lip. The front of the upper lip and the chin white ; the white of the 

 chin passing a short distance back along the lower edge of the jaw but not 

 continued nearly as far as the throat patch which consists of a pair of white 

 spots. The black on the shoulders is continued down the outerside of the 

 foreleg nearly to the knee. Similarly the rufous black hue of the outerside of 

 the thigh up to the root of the tail extends down the outerside of the hind- 

 leg to the hock. The legs below the knees and hocks both outside and 

 inside are dirty white ; on the hind leg the white of the innerside extends 

 upwai'ds to the groin and involves also the front of the leg below the stifle 

 (knee) joint ; innerside of foreleg also whitish up to the breast. Middle line of 

 belly and chest and the whorls of hair on the breast white. Tail black with some 

 grey hair. 



Capt. Bailey has kindly supplied me with the following dimensions of the 

 animal before it was skinned : — 



Height at shoulder ... ... ... ... iU inches. 



Length of body and head ... fi'i „ 



