Game Animals of India, etc. 



and likewise that they are exceedingly fierce in disposi- 

 tion, so much so indeed that the natives (who have to 

 get within short range) find them awkward customers. 

 They generally go about in pairs, each of which may be 

 accompanied by a kid. 



The longest known horns measure 24^ inches along 

 the front curve ; one pair with these dimensions 

 being in the possession of Colonel John Biddulph, 

 and a second in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Several 

 examples ranging between 2o|- and 22^ inches in length 

 are known. Some difference of opinion has arisen with 



Fig. 25. — Frontlet and Horns of Young Male Takin, from a specimen owned by 

 Mr. A. O. Hume. 



regard to the horns of the female. Brian Hodgson 

 described them as similar in form to those of the male, 

 although smaller, but in a paper communicated to the 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1887, Mr. A. 

 O. Hume urged that this was incorrect, and that the 

 female horns are of the type shown in fig. 25. On 

 this subject Captain A. Wilson, of the 14th Gurkhas, 

 wrote as follows from Kohima, Assam, in March 1900 : 

 " In Great Game Records I saw the head of what was 

 supposed to be a female takin, and as I had seen a 

 good many heads of this animal at one time and 

 another, I thought it strange that a female's head had 

 never come under my notice. My regiment has just 



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