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



need only visit the Pamirs to understand how a species becomes extinct. 

 My own opinion is that about 20 out of those 200 heads will be 45 inches 

 and over. The rest will be immature males as it is a singular fact that 

 scarcely a female lives on the Taghdumbash. This separation of the sexes is 

 a peculiarity which poli share with the Tibetan antelope and markhor, but 

 among markhor the sexes at least occupy the same valley. My 40 inch 

 poli weighed 237 lbs., stood 45 inches, and was 81 inches in length, of which 

 4 inches was tail. The colour is a sort of bluish-fawn, with a good deal 

 of white, which rather gives him away. They frequent the grassy slopes at 

 the very heads of the valleys, right under the glaciers. Their senses of 

 sight, smell and hearing are most acute, and although the ground on which 

 they live is not usually difficult, they generally frequent open spaces, where 

 it is hard to approach within less than a quarter of a mile. Like all hill 

 game they are best stalked from above if it is possible to manage it. They 

 generally feed until 10 a.m. when they lie up luitil 4 p.m., usually on the 

 feeding ground unless they have become suspicious. I never saw them 

 singly, but a herd may be anything from 4 up to 20, and often consisted en- 

 tirely of small heads. When scared they go up hill, and although their 

 tracks are obvious enough, they trav el so far that it is not worth while to 

 follow them. One should leave one's camp as soon as it is light enough to 

 see, as it is easier to stalk them when they are feeding than when they are 

 lying down. One always rides a yak until one has seen one's game, and 

 hillmen have such keen eyesight that it is rare to jump a herd. When one 

 has sighted the herd it is most difficult to tell the size of the heads. The 

 horns are so pale in colour as to be almost invisible and look smaller than 

 they really are. A 40-inch head makes approximately a full circle, and 

 anything better than that is worth shooting. They have a habit of digging 

 shallow pits to keep out of the wind, but are cute enough to keep their eyes 

 above the ground level. When at rest the various members of the herd graze 

 in all directions, and they graze vip wind, so always seem to feed away from 

 one. The Paik Nullah, where I first went, seemed to nie particularly un- 

 favourable for stalking, owing to the large open spaces and lack of ravines. 

 The Kukturuk nullah is easy stalking ground, but I saw next to nothing- 

 there, though a previous sportsman had missed a big head. If I had my 

 choice now, I would take the Kunjerab, as the ground is fairly good for 

 stalking, and there is enough ground and enough game for ten days shoot- 

 ing, whereas one would have scared all the game out of the Paik Nullah or 

 Kukturuk in less than a week. 



W. B. COTTON, i.o.s. 



Basti, V.V., ^^rd November 1914, 



No. VI.— THE ASIATIC TWO-HORNED BHINOCEROS 

 {RHINOCEROS 8UMATRENSIS, Cuv.). 



As far as I have been able to find out Rhinoceros sumatrensis and 

 sondaicus occur in Southern Tennasserim in about equal numbers, and 

 the many enquiries I have made seem to show that both species are equally 

 well known to the natives, while they appear to exist in the same situ- 

 ations and to be similar in habits, although in the Dutch Indies I was 

 always told that sondaicus was much more of a mountain animal than 

 sumatrensis. Besides the Rhinoceros I shot I have only heard of two other in- 

 stances of a Rhinoceros being shot near Victoria Point by a European, one of 

 these specimens, of which I have seen the skull, was sondaicus obtained some 

 years ago by Captain McCormick, a former planter in the district, but it is only 



