334 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



account of an adventure he had with one. Mr. O. Shaw shot 

 a serow with a white mane in Cashmere. There are two more 

 varieties of this Capricorn described in Sterndale's 'Natural 

 History of India.' The first is the Arakanese Capricorn, found 

 in Arakan, Pegu, the Malayan Peninsula, and Sumatra. 



This is a brown beast v/ith a yellow bay throat, black fore- 

 legs, and bay hind ones. The description is rather vague, and 

 Blyth's note — ' This species varies much in colour from red 

 to black, and the black sometimes with a white nape, or the 

 hairs of the nape may be white at the base only ' — does not 

 explain matters very clearly to an unscientific reader. The 

 second variety is the Thibetan Capricorn, discovered by Abbe 

 David, in Eastern Thibet. 



This differs from the Indian serow by the uniform blackish 

 brown of the upper parts, tending to ferruginous on the thighs, 

 and the red colour in place of the grey on the lower parts of 

 the legs. 



XLIII. TAKIN {Biidorcas taxicolor) 

 Native name : ' Takin^'' ' Takhon ' 



This curious animal, which is found just outside British 

 limits in the Mishmi and Akha hills, north of Assam, and in 

 Eastern Thibet, is a kind of large serow ; but its horns, instead 

 of being sharp upright spikes like those of the serow and gooral, 

 are more of the bovine type, being rounded, smooth, and with 

 the distinctive wrinkles and longitudinal marks of genus Nem- 

 orhcedus faintly defined. Their peculiar twist is best explained 

 by the accompanying sketch. 



An article in Sterndale's ' Mammalia of India,' signed ' J. C.,' 

 thus describes the animal : 



The takin is a large, heavily built ruminant, about 3 ft. 6 ins. 

 high at the shoulder, and 6 ft. in total length. The external 

 peculiarities of the animal are : first, peculiar angularly curved 

 horns in both sexes ; second, the enormously arched chevron ; 

 third, the very great development of the spurious hoofs, which are 

 obtusely conical, and about \\ in. in length in a small specimen. 



