LITTLE-KXOWN MAMMALS FROM CHINA 



515 



My first serow I killed near the vil- 

 lage of Hui-yao while Mr. Heller and 

 I were hunting monkeys in a precipi- 

 tous river gorge. Heller was following 

 along the water's edge, while I skirted 

 the rim of the caiion above. I had just 

 exchanged my shotgun for a Mann- 

 lieher rifle which my boy had been 

 carrying, and we 

 were climbing along 

 the steep slope about 

 twenty feet below 

 the edge, when sud- 

 denly a large animal 

 dashed from cover 

 just in front of us. 



It disappeared for 

 a second in a little 

 valley, but a few mo- 

 ments afterward I 

 saw it running along 

 the edge of the river 

 gorge seventy-five 

 yards away. I fired 

 instantly, and the 

 serow sank in its 

 tracks, gave a con- 

 vulsive twist, and 

 rolled over the preci- 

 pice. As it fell wo 

 heard a chorus of yells from below, and 

 I had hopes that the animal might 

 have been rescued from the river by the 

 Chinese who were evidently near the 

 water where it had fallen. ISTevertheless, 

 my heart was heavy as we searched along 

 the precipice for a place to descend. 



We discovered a woodcutter who 

 showed us a trail so steep that I rolled 

 for almost a hundred and fifty feet into 

 a mass of thorns, and narrowly escaped 

 breaking my neck. When we finally 

 reached the water's edge, it was only to 

 find a sheer wall of rock, against which 

 the torrent surged in a mass of white 

 foam, separating us from the place 

 where the serow must have fallen. 



I tried to wade around the cliff. ])ut 

 in two steps the water was uj) to my 

 armpits; so I pulled off my clothes and 

 swam around the corner. It was onlv 



a short distance, but the current was so 

 strong that it was a hard fight to gain 

 the rocks above. I finally persuaded 

 the woodcutter to follow me, but my 

 Chinese boy signed that he could not 

 swim and refused to come. We walked 

 gingerly among the sharp rocks for a 

 hundred yards or more, and suddenly 



Civets, found only in Asia and Africa, are fairlj' common in China. 

 A splendid series of these animals was collected. One civet actually 

 walked into camp and began to eat the scraps about the cook box 



■m 



This Yunnan flying squirrel, tlie largest known 

 of the world, is rare except in certain places 

 along the Burma frontier. These animals do not 

 fly, of course, hut sail from the top of one tree 

 to the bottom of another by means of membranes 

 connecting the fore and hind legs. Great quan- 

 tities of skins are shipped to central Yunnan to 

 lie made into coats 



