540 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
No. VI.NOTES ON THE TSINE (BOS SONDAICUS). 
(With a plate.) 
The late Mr. R. Lydekker in his “‘ Game Animals of India ”’ discusses the Tsine 
at considerable length, and quotes the late C. W. A. Bruce and Major G. P. Evans 
on the subject. As I have had the advantage of hunting and studying the Tsine 
after reading these authors, the following notes may be of interest. 
I spent June and July 1914 hunting Tsine in the Magwe district of Upper 
Burma, having previously hunted them in the Yamethin district on the other 
side of the Pegu Yomas. I subsequently met with them, in 1920, in Siam in 
the lower Meping valley. In all I have seen over twenty full-grown bulls and 
as many young ones, and not less than two hundred cows. 
Amongst the bulls I found the body colour most variable, but in only one 
instance, related below, did I see any variation from the usual light chestnut 
of the cows. 
The prevalent colour of the old bulls seemed to be khaki ; blue-grey and the 
rich bay of a copper-beech being next in order of frequency. 
The first bull I saw was red and, though adult, he did not carry a big head ; 
I am inclined to think that this shade of colour eventually develops into the 
copper-beech shade. Then I came on two bulls fighting, one of which was grey 
and the other chocolate brown ; this last being the only bull I saw of this colour. 
It is remarkable that in this instance, although the torn-up ground and the clots 
of blood flung about bore witness to the fierceness of the battle, there were no 
cows near or any trace of their recent presence. 
I then saw three khaki bulls in succession and, after them, two which were 
constantly together and were bay and grey respectively. I spent several weary 
days hunting these, as the grey bull carried a grand head, but they beat me 
every time, 
- Towards the end of June 1914 I had been one day through a previously un- 
visited tract of forest and seen the tracks of a small herd of four cows, a calf 
and a young bull. On the way back to camp I crossed the very fresh tracks of 
a big bull and a single cow coming from the direction where we had seen the 
first lot of tracks. I took up the tracks and within half a mile came to a stream 
which the bull and his mate had crossed so recently that the mud was still cloud- 
ing the water. Going up the far slope I suddenly spotted the legs of a Tsine 
which was standing behind a large bush about 50 yards away : the head was not 
visible and only small portions of the back could be seen through the leaves. 
From what I could see the body-colour seemed uniformly chestnut red and quite 
unlike any of the numerous cows I had seen before, so, knowing that there was 
only one of each sex in question, I naturally assumed that this was the bull, 
waited till part of the shoulder showed clear through the leaves, fired and ran 
inon the shot. As I did so, to my horror, a large dark-coloured cow rolled down 
the slope dead. I heard a stick break to my left and, on looking round saw an 
immense bull standing broadside on to me about 60 yards away and about 40 
from where the cow had been. My first thought was, ‘‘ Where has that buffalo 
come from ?”’ for he was dark slaty-blue, carried an immense pair of horns of 
great girth (certainly bigger than Mr. Tarleton’s record pair which I frequently 
saw in Rangoon) and stood a hand higher than any bull I saw before or after. 
As he turned to bolt I fired, but did not allow for his swinging off, so the bullet, 
striking behind the shoulder, passed out of the chest forwards doing little damage. 
T followed him up and found him lying down a mile on, but he bolted without 
giving me achance. I never came up with him again, though I put in two more 
days after him ; but the ground was hard after a break in the rains and the blood 
failed after the first two miles. While following him up on the first evening 
we came on the small herd whose tracks we had seen and they were now a 
