CHAPTER XIII 

 SPORT IN WESTERN CHINA 



Ruminant and other Game Animals 



IN the matter of large game animals Western China is 

 of special interest, since the country being so little known 

 there is a possibility of new and undescribed species or 

 varieties rewarding the energetic sportsman-explorer. The 

 difficulties in the way of any systematic exploration of the 

 Chino-Thibetan borderland are to-day very great, and many 

 years will elapse before the world is thoroughly informed on 

 this fascinating region. My friend. Captain Malcolm M'Neill, 

 of Oban, Scotland, visited this region in 1908, and in a brief 

 season secured a nice collection of different trophies. These 

 included the Takin and new varieties of a Bear and Stag, which 

 Mr. R. Lydekker has named in his honour. Mr. Zappey 

 whose primary object was the collecting of birds, found oppor- 

 tunity to shoot quite a number of animals, including the Takin ; 

 the last-named, by the way, he was the first white man to secure 

 by actually shooting the beast. 



Quite a number of different kinds of game animals are now 

 known from Western China, but only odd specimens of each 

 have reached the Occident, and there is much yet to be learnt 

 regarding every one of them. More especially is information 

 needed on the habits, colour-variation, and geographical range 

 of the different species and varieties. The affinity of the 

 fauna is with that of Upper Burmah and the Himalayas as 

 far as the animals of the forests are concerned, but in every 

 instance peculiar species or subspecies obtain. The animals 

 of the higher altitudes above the tree-line are mostly common 

 to the whole of the Thibetan highlands. ' Indeed, the uplands 



