148 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



No. VII.— VARIETIES OF MARKHOR HORNS. 



With reference to the interesting photograph published in your last issue 

 of a Markhor shot by Capt. Edwards, it may interest him and others to hear 

 that a similar head has been seen this winter by a British Officer in the 

 Barmai district. The horns were estimated to be about 46 inches in length 

 and seemed to be exactly similar to those of Capt. Edward's animal. 

 Mayadass,where Capt. Edward shot his head, and Barmai, where the second 

 head was seen,are close together in the Haramosh district, and it is extreme- 

 ly probable that Markhor seen in Barmai in the winter go up to the top of 

 Mayadass in the summer : the new head might be some relation of that 

 shot last summer. Perhaps some of your readers might be able to offer some 

 suggestion as to what conditions gave rise to this very rare type. I believe 

 a similar but smaller head was shot a few years ago in the Chilas District. 



J. F. TURNER, Capt., RE. 

 GiLGiT, 2'2nd February 1914. 



[Capt. Logan Home writes to us that " last year (191 3) in Baltistan I saw no 

 less that 5 Burh el-shaped heads (rather more so than the one in the photo in the 

 Journal) in one herd ; and there is a very much more remarkably shaped head in 

 the Mess of the 38th Dogras here, which resembles an Oorial if anything." Eds.] 



No. VIII.— A FEW NOTES ON THE WILD GOATS AND 

 FERM NATURE OF NORTHERN ARAKAN, BURMA. 



Until posted to the Hill Tracts of Arakan in September 1906 I had not 

 had the good fortune to bag a Burmese Goral, the Ncemorhedus griseus of na- 

 turalists or the red Arakan Serow Capricornis smnatraends rubidus, although 

 some years ago when after Gaur I had once before in the year 1898 caught 

 a glimpse of a Goral as, after uttering its strange sneezing, bark or scream, 

 it jinked and bounded away down a hill side on a precipitous slope of the 

 Thayetmyo Yomahs. I was fortunate enough however at that time to bag 

 in the same locality on the summit of " Pezwa," a hill which overlooks the 

 Mindon or Maton valley from a height of 5,000 feet, a fine male specimen 

 of the Burmese or Sumatran Serow Capricornis sumatraensis the " Tawseik " 

 or "Tawmyin" of Burmans about which, and the red Arakan Serow C. s. 

 rubidus, I shall have more to say hereafter, for I am of opinion that three 

 animals of the last named variety recently shot by me in the Arakan Hill 

 Tracts, viz., two females and a male, are a distinct form, being slightly 

 smaller and more rufous in every respect than the animal bagged on the 

 heights of Pezwa, which besides being larger had also a shaggier coat and 

 a longer mane and was of a distinctly darker or blackish grey shade. 

 Blyth and Blanford both agree in uniting C. s. rubidus and C. sumatraensis 

 whilst R. Lydekker considers that the former appears entitled to be re- 

 garded as a third local race distinguished by the extremely red tinge of 

 the coat. Blyth originally described the red type as a distinct species in 

 1863 under the name of Capricornis rubida. 



In my humble opinion, and I give it for what it is worth, it appears to me 

 that although they belong to the same species they are different at any 

 rate as regards colour and size and should therefore be given separate 

 designations. Then again, although I have not come across the animal 

 itself in Arakan or Burma proper, 1 have seen heads and horns of a third 

 or black race of Serow with the hair of tho frontal portion of the head 

 which was of a jet black colour, whilst the horns which appeared 

 to have the usual curve backwards and outwards from within a few 

 inches of the tips, were, if anything, longer by an inch or two and more 



