Game Animals of India, etc. 



the lateral pair of hoofs remarkably large. As regards 

 the teeth, it must suffice to mention that these are 

 of the general type of those of sheep and goats, and 

 therefore quite unlike those of oxen. The female has 

 four teats, like the serow and one species of thar. The 

 coat is formed of comparatively short and stiff hair, 

 varying locally in colour from reddish brown with a 

 light saddle to golden yellow on the back, and darker 

 on the face and limbs. In the skeleton the most re- 

 markable feature is the shortness and width of the 

 front and hind cannon-bones ; the breadth of which 

 approximates to half the length. 



The skull of the takin, of which no complete 

 specimen is known in this country, is remarkable for 

 its great depth in front of the eyes, the highly arched 

 profile, the comparatively short and convex nasal bones, 

 the enormous size of the nose-cavity (probably con- 

 nected with living at a high elevation), and the 

 smallness and weakness of the premaxillae, or front 

 upper jaw-bones. It recalls, in fact, to a certain extent 

 the skull of the Theban domesticated goat, in which 

 the vertical depth and the convexity of the profile are 

 still more exaggerated. A still nearer approximation 

 to the form characteristic of the Theban goat is 

 presented by the skull of a large extinct ruminant 

 from the Siwalik Hills of Northern India known as 

 Bucapra daviesi^ which may have been a near relative 

 of the takin, but more specialised in skull-characters. 

 The least imperfect skull of the takin in the collection 

 of the British Museum was presented by Mr. Claude 

 White, British Resident in Sikhim. 



Turning to what naturalists have written regarding 

 the affinities of this strange ruminant, we find the fol- 

 lowing statement, with the initials J. C. (J. Cockburn), 

 in Sterndale's Mammalia of India : " The takin," it is 

 there written, " is essentially a serow with affinities to 

 the bovines through the musk-ox, and other relation- 

 ships to the sheep, goat, and antelope." 



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