146 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



The " Pan-yang " is a rather heavily built animal, strong 

 and active, and very much at home amongst steep, difficult 

 cliff-country. It is fairly easy to stalk, though the nature of 

 the country and the rarefied atmosphere render the work 

 tiring and arduous. A full-grown animal weighs between 

 125 and 140 lbs. ; the mutton is of good flavour, without 

 any suspicion of " goaty" odour. The colloquial name, " Pan- 

 yang," is very descriptive, signifying " half-sheep, half-goat," 

 thereby denoting the somewhat intermediate appearance and 

 character of this animal. Shooting on the Hsueh-lung shan 

 range west of the Min River in the territory of Wassu on 13th 

 June 1908 Captain Malcolm M'Neill secured two heads, which 

 he informs me have horns measuring as follows : — 



Length Circumference at base Tip-to-tip 



No. I . . 26 J inches 12 inches 27 inches 



No. 2 . . 25I inches 12 inches 30 inches 



N.B. — Extreme tip of the last head stripped, otherwise it 

 would probably have spanned more. 



The Bharal of this region apparently differs in no par- 

 ticular from that found in the western parts of the Thibetan 

 plateaux. Quite a number of these animals are annually shot 

 by hunters, and I have seen many skins on sale in the streets 

 of Chengtu city. The skins are not much valued, being used 

 for lining the cheap winter garments worn by the lower 

 middle class of that region. 



Another Sheep, probably Hodgson's (0. ammon hodgsoni), 

 occurs immediately to the west and north of Tachienlu, but is 

 very rare. It has been seen in the neighbourhood of Litang 

 by at least two travellers, but there is no record of one being 

 shot. This Sheep frequents the alpine regions above 13,000 

 feet. Zappey saw three near the Rama-lal Pass, but failed to 

 get within comfortable range. He says they were larger than 

 Bharal, as they should be if they are Hodgson's variety. 



SEROW, " YEH LAU-TSZE " 



There are two distinct-looking kinds of Serow in Western 

 China, but the colouring in these animals is variable, age having 

 much to do with it. Zoologists are not yet agreed upon the 



