518 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



may be provisionally considered to include Assam, Burma, Siam, 

 and French Indo-China. 



Assam. "Just as the buffalo is having a bad time from everyone 

 wanting to grow rice where it wants to live, so the gaur, though 

 safe from the Hindu and living in hills in which shifting cultivation 

 alone is practised, is suffering from the hillmen, who sit up at 

 night over saltlicks and plug everything that comes along; conse- 

 quently it is already only a tradition in many hills where formerly 

 numerous" (Milroy, 1934, p. 103) . 



"Bison . . . are destroyed everywhere and at all times over salt- 

 licks and pools, and their meat, skins, and horns often sold in the 

 market places" (Hanson, 1931, p. 37). 



In Manipur "this animal is now very rare. It is said to have 

 been found all over the hills until it was almost exterminated by 

 foot and mouth disease in 1896. No special measures are taken for 

 its protection." (Political Agent in Manipur and J. C. Higgins, 

 in Hit., March, 1937.) 



Blanford refers (1891, p. 484) to specimens from the Mishmi 

 Hills, on the northeastern border of Assam. 



Burma. Of this Bison in Burma, Peacock (1933, pp. 102, 109) 

 says: 



Bison delight in forest-clad hills. The encroachment of permanent culti- 

 vation and the extension of communications hardly affect their main habitat, 

 and Bibos gawus is still found in very fair numbers in most of the hill 

 systems of Burma. 



Statistics show that only about twenty-five to thirty bison are shot annually 

 under sporting licenses. This is a negligible number, and the casualties from 

 epidemic disease and poachers are main considerations. 



Anthrax has been responsible for the devastation of many good grounds. 

 Some of the best grounds on the flats and in the valleys of Northern 

 Burma . . . are subject to epidemic disease. The Homalin kwins, in which 

 Evans mentions having seen a herd of 100 bison, have been ravaged by anthrax, 

 as also many another fine bison and saing ground in Northern and Central 

 Burma. . . . 



The Pidaung Game Sanctuary still contains herds numbering from forty 

 to fifty bison. This sanctuary has been reasonably well protected during 

 the past five years. As a result, epidemic disease and poachers have been ex- 

 cluded .... There is many another spot in Burma where bison are still 

 as plentiful as they are in the Pidaung Sanctuary .... 



On the whole, bison are very fairly plentiful throughout Burma and will 

 continue so, without prejudice to human interests, if given an ordinarily 

 decent measure of protection. . . . 



Bison are "protected game" and may not be shot either in reserved or 

 unclassed forests without a game license. . . . 



Only two bison bulls of the prescribed standard may be .shot by any one 

 person in any one year. 



There were 188 Bison in the Pidaung Sanctuary in 1928-29, and 

 197 in 1929-30 (Peacock, 1931, p. 53). 



