Game Animals of India, etc. 



short and smooth, but on the lower part of the flanks 

 becomes elongated to form a pendent fringe extending 

 across the shoulders and thighs ; there is likewise a 

 tuft of elongated hair on the front of the chest, and the 

 lower half of the tail is enveloped in a huge bunch of 

 still longer hair, reaching somewhat below the hocks. 

 /^Ti wild yak the coat is uniformly blackish brown 

 throughout, although showing a little white in the 

 region of the muzzle, with a sprinkling of grey on the 

 head and face in old animals, and tending to rusty on 

 the back in aged bulls. The semi-domesticated yak of 

 the elevated plateau of Rupshu are very large, and 

 generally, if not always, as dark-coloured as their wild 

 kindred ; but in most parts of Ladak and the Tibetan 

 districts of the Himalaya the domesticated breed is 

 much smaller, and may be of any colour from black to 

 white. In such breeds, which may have a strain of the 

 Indian humped cattle in their blood, the cows (as shown 

 in fig. 9) may be hornless. It is from the tails of such 

 parti-coloured or white yak that the fly-whisks, or 

 chaorieSj so much in vogue in the plains of India, are 

 made. Pure-bred domesticated yak have two great 

 disabilities — they will neither eat corn nor cross a 

 bridge. 



Wild yak are restricted to the plateau of Tibet, 

 ranging from the eastern part of Ladak as far as Kansu, 

 in North-West China, and extending northwards to 

 the chain of the Kuen-Lun. In summer they are 

 found at elevations between about 14,000 and 15,000 

 feet, and even in winter it is probable that, in Ladak at 

 least, they seldom, if ever, descend much below 13,000 

 feet. So far as the writer is aware, wild yak have 

 never been brought into Leh (11,500 feet), and it is 

 probable that they could not exist at levels much below 

 this. The parti-coloured domesticated breeds, as well 

 as the small black yak frequently seen at Darjiling, 

 will, however, thrive, under suitable conditions, at the 

 sea-level. 



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