Game Animals of India, etc. 



opposite sides are unsym metrical when compared with 

 one another. In the Burmese thamin, with which 

 alone this book is concerned, the colour of the winter 

 dress of the stags is uniformly dark brown above 

 (occasionally with a few light spots near the middle 

 line of the back) and white or whitish beneath ; the 

 throat-fringe, which sometimes shows a white gorget, 

 is darker than the rest of the coat, and there is usually 

 some white on the chin, around the eyes, and on 

 the margins of the ears. In summer the colour of the 

 stags changes to fawn above and pale brown on the 

 under-parts. At all times hinds are a paler rufous 

 fawn ; and very young fawns are usually spotted with 

 white on the hind-quarters. The Siamese race of the 

 thamin is more rufous-coloured, and more or less 

 distinctly spotted at all seasons of the year. In general 

 bodily form thamin are like swamp-deer, having the 

 same short tail, but retaining more or less distinct 

 traces of the metatarsal gland and tuft. 



In the Manipur valley, which is one huge swamp, 

 the thamin have developed a peculiar modification in 

 the foot which enables them to walk with ease in such 

 ground. In the Burmese thamin the under surface of 

 the hind-pasterns is covered with hair in the ordinary 

 manner, and the animal walks entirely on the main 

 hoofs, keeping the pasterns much elevated. In the 

 Manipur thamin, on the other hand, the under surface 

 of the pastern is covered with a very harci, bare skin, 

 which immediately above each hoof has almost the 

 consistency of horn, and is practically continuous with 

 the hoof itself. Moreover, so far as can be determined 

 from comparison with a mounted specimen of the 

 Burmese form, the pasterns are considerably longer < 

 than in the latter. In walking, according to the 

 account given by Major C. S. Cumberland, the foot is 

 much bent, so that the animal walks on nearly the 

 whole of the under surface of the pasterns, and thus 

 gains a firm support on. the yielding morass. 



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