332 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



like that of a Langour monkey, long, soft, grey hair, tipped with 

 brown ; it has a white ruff on its throat and cheeks, a brown 

 face, and rather rounded brown ears — altogether it looks like a 

 goat-monkey. The horns are the same shape as those of the 

 Indian gooral. 



XLIII. SEROW {Nemorhcedus btibalinus) 



Gunvhal, ^ Serow'' ; Sutlej Valley, '- Irjiii'' ; Cashmere, "■ Ratnoo,'' ^ Halj, 

 ' Salabhir ; ' Chaniha, ' Goa,^ *■ Jhangal ' 



The serow is a heavily built, awkward looking animal, 

 intensely ugly, suggesting a cross between a donkey and a cow, 

 with a wild-looking bristly black mane, large coarse ears, horns 

 like those of a gooral, only bigger ; its general colour is black on 

 the back and head, the muzzle being dirty white ; the sides, fore- 

 arms and thighs are of bright red clay colour, the under parts 

 and legs being white ; when seen first, it looks all red and 

 black, and its wild uncanny appearance accords well with the 

 gloomy tangled precipitous ravines it frequents. 



It is found thinly scattered along the whole of the southern 

 slopes of the Himalayas, from Cashmere down past Sikkim, to 

 the Burmo-Chinese frontier, but apparently does not cross 

 the snowline, probably on account of absence of forest on the 

 northern side. Precipitous rocks and their accompanying 

 caves it likes, but forest it must have, and the thicker and more 

 tangled the better. A gloomy damp ravine below a waterfall, 

 the sides mere walls of rock and the bed choked with rank 

 vegetation, is the place where its tracks are oftenest found. The 

 beast itself is rarely seen. It appears to live generally alone ; a 

 female with a three-quarter-grown young one may be found 

 together, but rarely two full-grown beasts. Major Greenaway 

 saw three serow in one day, in the Sindh Valley in 187 1, two of 

 them together, and one alone, and got shots at all of them, but 

 only bagged one. But this was exceptional luck. Most men 

 who have shot for some years in the hills, have seen one or two 

 serow, but rarely more, and getting a shot at one is generally 



