268 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol, XXVIII. 
not conclusive (it was variously described as black or like a Saing Nyo, i.e. 
the very dark colour of some old bull Tsaing). 
In the second beat I saw the head and shoulders of an undoubtedly black 
Serow, he (?) watched me for some time, but I could not get a shot ; there is how- 
ever no doubt that he was black; I could not see his legs. 
A month later I had another beat on the same hill and killed a female Serow in 
dense jungle (hence the sex error) and this animal (now with Messrs. Theobald) 
was red, but not so red as in the plate of C. s. rubidus ; more a dark red brown 
with a few black hairs and a black mane. 
Now these Maingthon Hills are continuous with the Chindwin Hills and should 
therefore, I believe, produce Red Serow ; however on the same hill we have one 
black one (¢ ?) and one red female. Is it therefore possible that females are 
red and males black ? (Lydekher “Game animals of India” throws no light on 
this) or do the species overlap or interbreed ? 
The only other Serow head I have seen shot in the District (date, place and 
sex unknown) was red, but on the other hand the Burmans state that the Serow 
on the remaining two hills are black. 
Again just across the Irrawaddy in the Ruby Mines Hills you get the Black 
Serow, with a few white hairs on head and back, with red legs. I have seen the 
head from Bernardmyo belonging to H. L. P. Walsh, IFS. (i.e, C. s. 
swettenhami or is it milne edwards). 
Some years ago (1910) when in Tharrawaddy Division, Lower Burma, I shot 
one 3 and saw other Serow on the Pegu Yomas and these were all black with 
red legs. The one I killed had no white hairs anywhere nor had it any white on 
lips or muzzle. 
According to books, however, this would appear to be a C. s. rubidus area 
whereas no one had ever seen a Red Serow there. 
Your recent Mammal Survey (I have not kept the journals) has probably 
given you better statistics on which to base the range of each sub-species and I 
should be interested to hear exactly what sub-species may be met with in Burma 
and what their ranges are. 
C. E. MILNER, 
SHWEBO, 
10th June 1921. 
No. VIL—SOME NOTES ON THE HORNS OF THE THAMIN 
(CERVUS ELDI.) 
(With a plate.) 
In 1918 Mr. Oldfield Thomas published in the Society’s Journal (Vol. XXV, 
page 363) an article entitled “‘ The Nomenclature of the Geographical Races of 
the Panolia Deer.’ In his article Mr. Thomas gives the specific features which 
differentiate the various races of this deer and also describes a new subspecies, 
R. thamin brucei, which he names after the late Mr. Bruce who shot the speci- 
mens on the Thimbaung-gwin Plain. 
Mr. Thomas has raised the Manipur race to a distinct species on account of its 
naked pasterns. Is not this feature due to the marshy ground which these deer 
inhabit in Manipur, and into which their feet continually sink, so wearing away 
the hair ? I have been unable to discover any proof that the young of the deer 
in that area are born with naked pasterns, and until such proof is obtained surely 
this peculiarity should be considered as being characteristic of a geographical 
race rather than of a separate species. Perhaps Mr. Thomas can give us such proof 
or evidence of other special characteristics which in themselves justify the addi- 
tion of another species to contuse further the mind of the sportsman-naturalist, 
