2l8 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[^EPT , 1904. 



bucks being armed with similar long tusks in the upper 

 jaw, but the antlers are even smaller than in the latter, 

 being reduced to mere knobs, and there are distinctive 

 peculiarities in the skull. This interesting deer was first 

 obtained by the Abbe David in the Moupin district of 

 Eastern Tibet, but a second species was soon afterwards 

 secured near Ningpo, in Eastern China, while a third kind 

 has recently been described from the mountains rear 

 Ichang, in Central China. 



In hollow-hon.ed ruminants (oxen, sheep, antelopes, 

 iS:c.) Tibet is specially rich, many of the species being 

 peculiar to the country, where se\ eral of them are con- 

 fined to the high central arid plateau. The first place in 

 this group must undoubtedly be assigned to the yak 

 {Bos grniniiciis), one of the finest and largest of the 

 wild oxen, specially characterised by the great growth of 

 long shaggy hair along the flanks and under-parts of the 

 body and the well-known bushy tail. In this country, 

 unfortunately, a somewhat false impression of the yak is 

 prevalent, owing to the fact that all the specimens hitherto 

 imported belong either to a small domesticated breed from 

 Darjiling, or to half-breeds; the latter being generally black 

 and white, instead of the uniform black distinctive of the 

 pure-bred and wild animal. None of such half-breeds 

 can compare with the magnificent half-tamed animals 

 kept by the natives of the elevated Rupsu plateau, to 

 the south of the Indus, where they afford the only means 

 of transport by this route between Ladaic and India. 

 And even these Rupsu beasts are inferior to the wild yak, 

 which stands nearly six feet at the shoulder. These 

 magnificent animals are absolutely confined to the arid 

 central plateau, on some parts of which, hitherto closed 

 to Europeans, they are said to be comparatively 

 numerous. 



Another native of the same bare plateau is the Tibetan 

 argali, or wild sheep (Oris iiwwoii Itodgsoni ), amAgnihcent 

 animal, with horns of wonderfully massive proportions in 

 the old rams. Since, however, this species is only a local 

 variety of the true argali of Central Asia generally, it is 

 of less interest than the types exclusively confined to the 

 country. The same may be said of the shapoo, or Tibetan 

 urial (Oris vignei), which is the typical race of a smaller 

 race of wild sheep, whose range extends in one direction 

 into North-Western India and in another into Persia. A 

 third species of wild sheep, the bharal, or blue sheep (Oris 

 nahtira), readily distinguished by its smooth and peculiarly 

 curved horns and close grey-blue coat with black points, 

 is, however, absolutely characteristic of the arid Tibetan 

 plateau, on which it is found in large flocks. On the 

 other hand, the Asiatic ibex (Capra sihirica), which 

 frequents the more craggy ground instead of the rolling 

 uplands, is a species with a very wide distribution in 

 Central Asia. 



Although the yak and the bharal may be regarded as 

 representing by themselves distinct subgeneric types, all 

 the hollow-horned ruminants hitherto mentioned are 

 members of widely-spread genera. We now come, how- 

 ever, to a remarkable species which is the sole represen- 

 tative of a genus quite apart from any other, and abso- 

 lutely restricted to the arid central plateau. This is the 

 graceful chiru, or Tibetan antelope ( Pantholops liodgsoni), 

 of which the bucks are armed with long, slender, and 

 heavily-ridged horns of an altogether peculiar type (fig. 4), 

 while the does are hornless. Eossibly this handsome 

 antelope may be the original of the mythical unicorn, a 

 solitary buck, when seen in profile, looking exactly as if it 

 had but a single long straight horn. Although far from 

 uncommon, chiru are very wary, and consequently 

 difficult to approach. Like all Tibetan animals, they 

 have a firm thick coat, formed in this instance of close 



woolly hair of a grey fawn colour. The most peculiar 

 feature about the chiru is, however, its swollen, puffy 

 nose, which is probably connected with breathing a highly 

 rarified atmosphere. This antelope has never been ex- 

 hibited alive in a menagerie, and, as is the case with the 

 other large mammals of the central desert plateau of 

 Tibet, it would probably not live if removed from its 

 native uplands to ordinary levels. A second antelope 

 inhabiting the same country as the chiru is the goa 

 ('G(7^('//rt/'/(-('/t-fl;/rfi(/(;j, a member of the gazelle group charac- 

 terised by the peculiar form of the horns of the bucks 

 and certain features of coloration, whereby it is markedly 

 distinguished from all its kindred save one or two other 

 Central Asiatic species. 



The most remarkable of all the Tibetan hollow-horned 

 ruminants is, however, the takin {Biidorcas taxtcolor), of 

 which the typical representative inhabits the Mishmi 

 Hills, in the south-east corner of the country, immedi- 



Fig. 4.— Head of Alale Chiru. 



ately north of the Assam \'alley, while a second variety 

 is found further east, in the Moupin district. The takin, 

 which may be compared in size to a Kerry cow, is a 

 clumsily-built brute v;ith yellowish-brown hair and 

 curiously curved horns, which in some degree recall those 

 of the South African white-tailed gnu. Its nearest re- 

 latives appear to be the serows of the outer Himalaya 

 and the Malay countries, which are in many respects 

 intermediate between goats and antelopes. As it lacks 

 the thick woolly coat of the chiru and the goa, there 

 can be little doubt that it inhabits a country with a less 

 severe climate than that of the Central Tibetan plateau, 

 and it is probably a nati\'e of the more or less wooded 

 districts of comparatively low elevation forming the out- 

 skirts of Tibet. It is one of the few large animals that 

 hitherto appears never to have fallen to the rifle of a 

 European. 



With the large and handsome wild ass or wild horse 

 (for it is, to a great extent, intermediate between the two), 

 locally known as the kiang, we return once more to a 

 characteristic denizen of the desert plateau forming the 

 heart of Tibet. The kiang [Eqnus hemionus kiang) stands 



