513 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Mr. Edmund Heller with a sambur killed near the Burma 

 border. — Mr. Heller was largely responsible for the care and 

 preservation of the small mammal collection, which has arrived 

 at the Museum in excellent condition 



front of them was a bounding gray 

 form. I fired at almost three hundred 

 yards, for the mist had begun to close 

 in, and as the crash of the little Mann- 

 licher echoed up the gorge, tiie goral 

 threw itself into the air, whirling over 

 and over on to the rocks below. It was 

 a fine old male with splendid horns 

 and, as it turned out, was the largest 

 specimen which we killed during the 

 expedition. 



It may appear unsportsman-like to 

 have hunted gorals with dogs, but in 

 this particular region they could be 

 killed in no other way. There was so 

 much cover, even at altitudes of from 

 twelve thousand to fifteen thousand 

 feet, that a man might spend a month 

 "still hunting" and never see a goral. 

 They are vicious fighters, and fre- 

 quently back up to a cliff, turn on the 

 dogs, and fight the pack. At such 

 times, if the hunter does not arrive 

 soon, one or two of the most adventur- 

 ous dogs almost certainly will be killed. 



On the Snow Mountain we found the 

 animals singly, but at Hui-yao, not far 

 from the Burma frontier, where we 

 hunted another species in the spring, 

 they were almost universally in herds 

 of from six to seven or eight. It was 



at the latter place that we 

 had our best opportunity to 

 observe gorals and learn 

 something of their habits. 

 We were camping on the 

 banks of a branch of the 

 Swelie Eiver, which had 

 cut for itself a deep gorge 

 through a range of hills 

 from seven to eight hun- 

 dred feet high. A herd of 

 al)Out fifty gorals had been 

 living on one of the moun- 

 tainsides not far from the 

 village, and although tliey 

 were seen constantly by the 

 natives, they could not be 

 killed. With our high- 

 ])ower rifies we could shoot 

 across the river at distances 

 of from two hnndred to four hundred 

 yards. 



We could scan every inch of the hill- 

 side with our field glasses and watch 

 the gorals as they moved about quite 

 unconscious of our presence. At this 

 place they were feeding almost exclu- 

 sively upon the leaves of low bushes and 

 the new grass which had sprung up 

 where the slopes had been partly 

 burned over. We found them browsing 

 from daylight until about nine o'clock, 

 and from four in the afternoon until 

 dark. They would move slowly about 

 among the bushes, picking off the new 

 leaves, and usually about the middle of 

 the morning would choose a place where 

 the sun beat in warmly upon the rocks, 

 and go to sleep. 



Strangely enough, they did not lie 

 down on their sides, as do many other 

 hoofed animals, but doubled their fore- 

 legs under them, stretched their necks 

 and hind legs straight out, and rested on 

 their bellies. It was a most uncomfort- 

 able looking attitude, and the first time 

 I saw an animal resting thus I thought 

 it had been wounded, but both Mr. Heller 

 and myself saw them repeatedly at 

 other times, and realized that this was 

 their natural position when asleep. 



